Belgium scraps aviation tax plans
would have raised €132m for government coffers. The charge would have amounted
to between €5 and €50 per passenger but tension between the federal and regional
governments has seen the plans dropped.
has become fashionable for governments to plunder the airline industry and its
customers, and cynically pretend they are doing so for the sake of the environment…
Taxing a national asset is just plain crazy."
dubbed by the
million Belgian departure tax proposals. Filling budget gaps or financing government
investment in the banking industry with gratuitous travel taxes is policy myopia
at its worst," said the organisation’s director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani.
be looking to improve European competitiveness. An effective Single European
Sky would save 16 million tonnes of CO2 annually and improve the competitiveness of Europe’s skies by over €5 billion,"
he said.
government.