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| Thursday, 3 July 2003 |
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Embarkation tax unchanged by Shirajiv Sirimane The Colombo Airport has reduced the embarkation tax from Rs. 1,500 back to its original figure of Rs. 1,000 after implementing it for a few hours. The government had earlier taken a decision to increase the embarkation tax from Rs. 1,000 to 1,500 with effect from June 1 and subsequently from July 1. The Colombo airport charged the revised fee of Rs. 1,500 for about eight hours on July 1 and suddenly on a directive of the Ministry of Civil Aviation decided to reduce the tax back to Rs. 1,000. Airport Manager I. M. Razeek said that they received a directive from the Civil Aviation Ministry to stop collecting the new fare and revert back to the original fare. "We have issued around 1,000 tickets by then at the new rate of Rs. 1,500," he said. He said that in fairness to those passengers who paid the extra fee, the authorities have decided to refund Rs. 500 each to any passenger who had paid Rs. 1,500 as embarkation tax. He said that already nearly 50 passengers have been given the refund. Razeek said that passengers should call over with their embarkation tag, air ticket and the passport to the embarkation counter at the departure lounge or meet the Airport Duty Manager to collect this refund. "We are not setting any deadline to pay back this refund." Travel industry was irked with the decision to increase this tax and now the industry is thankful to the government for making a timely intervention and taking off the extra Rs. 500. The 'Daily News' ran a series of news items highlighting a cross section view of the public and the travel industry officials who all said that before the increase of embarkation tax, facilities at the Colombo airport should be improved. Housemaids who come from the outstations going for overseas employment say that facilities at the airport are not at all adequate. "Sometimes we have to wait for a long time if we are flying in the morning since the ticket counters are full," a passenger said. She added that if a flight is delayed, the canteen in the airport charges exorbitant amounts even for a cup of tea and they simply cannot afford it. "Even the Colombo-Airport bus service at the airport is very irregular and the airport taxies do not allow two passengers plying the same direction to share a taxi," they said. |
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