Air Passenger Duty rises on 1st November
a controversial rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD).
generate an estimated £2.3bn for the Treasury.
expensive.
to the UK. Critics also point out that family holidays could become much more
expensive.
as people cut down on foreign holidays.
increase of 33%. And flying economy to popular holiday destinations in the Caribbean
will cost £75 in APD, up from £50 last year and £40 two years ago.
see hefty increases in the duty.
longer-haul journeys in 1994, only rose to £10 for economy flights in Europe and
£40 for flights further afield by 2007. In the past three years, it has increased
dramatically.
this morning to launch an attack on the tax.
the UK where they have a passenger tax — and remember the passenger tax is a
tax at a rate of about 33% on Ryanair’s average ticket price, so this government
is asking the poorest passengers to pay the most amount of tax.
they scrapped the taxes and have been rewarded with traffic and tourism growth.”
£12 £24 9%
Band B: 2,001-4,000 miles, inc. Egypt and US
£60 £120 33%
Band C: 4,001-6000 miles, inc. Caribbean and S Africa
£75 £150 50%
Band D: more than 6,000 miles, inc. Australia
£85 £170 55%
Source: HM Revenue and Customs
city of the country concerned (with the exception of the Russian Federation which
is split east and west of the Urals):
fall into each of the new APD bands, can be found at
into replacing APD by a per plane duty (PPD). Indications are that this will be
launched in October. Proposals in 2008 by the previous Government on a per plane
duty came to nothing and it isn’t currently known what form the new proposals
might take.
2009-10 to £3.8bn in 2015-16 and, crucially, that UK aviation tax will continue
to rise even when aviation joins the EU ETS in 2012.
The 2003 Aviation White Paper contained the Government’s views on how aviation
should meet its environmental costs, with preference given to a scheme of global
emissions trading.
Duty. They are misleading people. The aviation industry is not over-taxed. Even with the rise in APD it is still undertaxed. The Exchequer is losing around £10 billion because aviation fuel is tax-free and the industry pays no VAT. The income from APD is still well below half that figure. Aviation also says it pays for its emissions through the European Emissions Trading System. That is beginning to happen but that doesn’t cover noise or community destruction. And it misses the point: APD is not an environmental tax. It was introduced by Kenneth Clarke in the early 1990s to help make up the shortfall in aviation’s contribution to general taxation. That is still its purpose. It is time the aviation industry paid its fair share of taxation. 1.11.2010 |
Fair taxes on aviation could prevent over 20% of public sector cuts
20% of planned public sector cuts.
Of this £36.7 billion is cuts to public services. (Information from
rate as petrol and VAT was charged, the tax take would be over £10 billion pa.
That represents some 27% of the proposed cuts.
poorer people most). But because aviation is very much the preserve of the well
off – see
used or adjustments made. For example:
The total cut in spending could be used for comparison instead of cut to public
services (% then lower)Extrapolating tax take from now to 2015 to allow for aviation growth (% then
higher)Allowing for a reduction in forecast air travel leading to a slightly smaller
tax take (% then lower)Abolishing Air Passenger Duty (APD) to offset fuel duty and VAT (% then lower)
paid off more slowly, as is Labour and Green Party policy, the same aviation taxes
could pay off a far greater proportion of the deficit and reduce public sector
cuts far more.
that aviation taxation is not just about reducing environmental impacts from one
sector . It has major social and economic dimensions.