Ajit Singh, who has already written to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and plans to consult him again, underlines that the increase effected recently in the service tax on air tickets and levies on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is hurting the aviation sector.
Earlier, service tax was levied on 10 per cent of the total value of the ticket with a cap of Rs 100 for domestic ticket and Rs 500 for international ticket. This has been hiked to 40 per cent of the total value of the ticket without any cap, he told PTI in an interview.
With regard to ATF price, he said it was at least 50 per cent higher here than in places like Singapore and Sharjah and determined not in "transparent" manner.
"Both these issues I will take up...I had written to the Finance Minister long time ago, I will write to him again and I will consult him. I will talk to the Prime Minister also," an unhappy Ajit Singh said.
Talking about service tax, he said, "no other country" imposes it on international passengers while for domestic passengers, it is uniform under GST, on which they get offset.
Referring to the increase in service tax on air tickets, the Minister said, "it is really hurting the passenger fares."