New Delhi:
The government has reduced the rate of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on domestic maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to 5 percent from 18 percent to support the aviation sector, Secretary of State for Civil Aviation General (ret.) VK Singh said Monday.
In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Singh said the government has taken several steps to meet the increasing demand in the aviation sector in the future.
“The Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate has been reduced from 18 percent to 5 percent for household maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services,” the minister said.
In the written reply, the minister noted that the average number of passengers carried in the pre-COVID fiscal year (2019-20) was about 4 lakh per day. On March 6, 2022, domestic airlines in India were carrying about 3.7 lakh passengers.
“The number of daily air passengers could exceed pre-COVID levels in a few months,” he said.
The minister said the central government has discussed the issue of reducing the value added tax (VAT) on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) with states and union territories.
Eleven states/UTs have reduced VAT on ATF to below 5 percent. These states/UTs include Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadar & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The minister noted that the Government of India has “in principle” approved the establishment of 21 greenfield airports across the country. So far, eight greenfield airports namely Sindhudurg and Shirdi in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been put into operation.