AGARTALA, January 5 (TIWN): Incessant flight cancellation here in Agartala airport has created havoc among the Agartala flyers. On another major hurdle as many as Tripura passengers had to skip off their journey to their destination recently. On an exclusive talk with TIWN today Tripura MP & former Industry Minister Jitendra Chowdhury said that the UPA -II govt. has made everything messed up with Civil aviation, where the private companies has got full liberty to act on their own way in regard of their flight operation here in the country, and has greatly avoided the North-eastern states.Following the recent worst situation of the Agartala airport where as many as flights had decided to cancel their operation, MP Jitendra Chowdhury said that he had raised the issue in length and breadth and met the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, in New Delhi and other officials to express concern over gradual decrease in flight operation in Tripura sector. Mr. Chowdhury raised the issue demanding immediate intervention of the Union civil aviation ministry to ensure regular movement of flights to and from Agartala besides action against airlines for unnecessary fare hike.Tripura MPs have also drawn attention of the Union Minister over frequent air fare hikes despite the State Government reducing tax structure. The discussion commenced after MPs submitted a written memorandum to the union civil aviation minister.

It urged his intervention to relieve people of geographically isolated Tripura from ordeal and help them remain connected smoothly with the rest of the country.

MP Jitendra Chowdhury today while talking  to TIWN said that it is absolutely wrong slogan of the India Govt., who says that India claims the sixth position in regard of Civil aviation industry,  but compared to the population of India, 6th position is a shame. Also Jiten Chowdhury said that recently Air Asia has come up to operate their flight from India internationally and the civil aviation ministry has accepted it, where the Air Asia proposed to make fly their flights internationally and not local corners of the country.

On another issue, according to the official sources of the state transport department the Tripura government has recently turned down a proposal from Air India to start operating a small ATR aircraft of Alliance Air on the Agartala-Kolkata route because it wants an assurance from the state to bear possible losses incurred in the operation of the flight.
The source added that ATR aircraft was withdrawn from the Agartala route two years ago by Air India without any valid reason. Moreover, passengers do not want to fly in the small, old aircraft and we don't recommend ATR aircraft in the Agartala sector due to safety reasons.
Source said that to meet the demand, at least two more 180-seater Boeing aircrafts are needed on the Agartala-Kolkata and Agartala-Delhi via Guwahati routes.

It is mentionable here that hundreds of people flying to Kolkata and Delhi from Agartala and vice versa have been badly hit by the sudden rise in air fares and cancellation of flights over the last few days.
While the opposition Congress criticized the state government for its failure to check rising air ticket prices, the ruling CPM accused the Centre of failing to regulate the aviation industry.

It is also mentionable that recently the state govt. on its cabinet decision slashed the ATF VAT tax to 18%, whereas earlier it was 22% in Tripura. . 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. 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 22-12.5 per cent.

 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 Eastern States, Manipur had reduced the ATF VAT upto 2% also. But in case of Tripura, the ATF VAT tax stands so tall that it is now badly hitting the Agartala passengers leading a section of travel agencies to earn two paisa.