AGARTALA, December 5 (TIWN): CM Manik Sarkar’s memorandum to PM demands that Agartala Airport, which has the second largest air traffic in the region after Guwahati, need to be an international airport for facilitating travel in sectors Agartala to Dhaka / Chittagong in Bangladesh and other parts of the South-East Asia. But CM did not raise the important issue with PM on rising airfares, neither anything regarding the ATF VAT fixed by the state government which was 22% earlier and it was reduced to 18% few days ago. Due to this high ATF VAT of 18% various airline authorities had already dropped the service from Tripura. Recently, Jet Airways too withdrew its flight services from Agartala Airport on October 27. Though, after reducing 4% of ATF VAT it is still very high compared to the other states. According to the recent data; Telangana has planned to bring down the VAT on ATF to about 4 per cent. Currently, Gujarat, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal levy 4-5 per cent sales tax on ATF followed by Goa, which last year reduced the tax slab from 22 to 12.5 per cent.

A total of eleven flights including inbound and outgoing flights in Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi and other destinations of the country are operating from the Agartala Airport, said a  source of Agartala, here today.

Around 3,600 passengers are estimated to travel in and out of Agartala everyday. Operating flights in Northeastern region is a mandatory for the private airliners. Since private airlines are operating in the region, the companies have been getting benefits from the central government and if any company winds up its business from a remote state like Tripura, certainly it is the duty of the state government to stop it. Since, the Agartala Airport is currently estimated to generate the second largest air traffic in the northeastern region after Guwahati, it is a legitimate demand to start more flights and regulate airfare. While, the low cost airlines are also deciding to withdraw their services from Tripura soon following the drop in the frequency of flights, the source mentioned.

But turning a blind eye to these problems, state government is not considering this as a major issue.   

But this rising airfare will severely affect the innocent people who are to travel outsid by some urgent needs like health, education etc.

While airlines dropping fares and added flights to several minor airports across the country, small-town India is flying high in recent times. Carriers have been able to trim fares and start more flights to destinations like Bagdogra and Bhubaneswar thanks to the enormous savings that they’re making on the price of jet fuel. States such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have slashed the value-added tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), the consequence of which has been a big jump in flights, leading to a sharp increase in passenger traffic. Even one of the North East States, Manipur had reduced the ATF VAT upto 2% also. But in case of Tripura, the state Government is busy in dirty politics. So why the state government is not reducing the ATF VAT like Manipur and other States ?