After lashing out at opposition-ruled states over VAT, or value added tax, on fuel prices, union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has now slammed them over air ticket prices. On Thursday the former aviation minister said Bengal, Delhi and Maharashtra had imposed ‘massive’ 25 per cent VAT on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) while BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland, as well as Jammu and Kashmir, charged just 1 per cent. “Ever wondered why air ticket prices haven’t come down…” his tweet asked.
Saying ATF comprises nearly 40 per cent of cost of airline operations, Puri said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ensured ‘affordable air travel’ for the common people of the country in line with his vision of ‘hawai chappal se hawai jahaj tak (from slippers to ship)’.
“But these states create impediments. They manufacture protests against ‘oil prices’ but fleece people to fill their coffers,” he alleged, “Such hypocrisy of opposition-ruled states.”
