LONDON, England, Monday June 21, 2010 – When the UK emergency budget is presented tomorrow, regional travel and tourism stakeholders will be closely monitoring to see what is said about the Airline Passenger Duty (APD) which the new coalition government has promised to reform.
After elections last month, agreements between Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats proposed a tax on planes instead of passengers.
It is anticipated that during the budget, details will be provided on how it will work.
Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett last week met with the British Caribbean All Parliamentary Group, the Caribbean Tourism Organization and the British Air Transport Association, to discuss the controversial.
“We restated the Caribbean’s position on the APD and we think that the position taken by the new coalition government is still not clear at this time. It is not clear whether they are going to abolish it (APD) completely, in favour of the new single tax (PPD) on the airline,” Bartlett said.
He said after the budget is presented, there will be follow-up discussions and meetings to formulate a response to the UK government’s position on the APD.
The APD was imposed by the Labour government of former prime minister Gordon Brown and was billed as an environmental tax. It saw passengers paying tax depending on the distance between London and the capital of their destination.
The duty on long-haul economy fares to the Caribbean rose from £40 (US$59) to £50 (US$74) in November 2009 and is to increase further this November.
Regional tourism stakeholders had complained that the APD was discriminatory and had lobbied the UK government on several occasions to review it.