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New Delhi:
Despite the current turbulence in India's commercial aviation
space, the government sees robust growth ahead if airlines reduce
tariff, induct small aircraft and connect cities beyond metros --
for which a policy will be announced soon.
"We need more connectivity to smaller cities. There is also the
need to build low-cost airports at these places. This will surely
encourage a growth in passenger traffic," Civil Aviation Minister
Ajit Singh told IANS in an exclusive interview.
"Tier-II and Tier-III cities are the ones that are showing rapid
economic growth. These are the places where the aviation service
must improve," said Singh, who completes one year at the helm at
Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan here next month.
According to the minister, even though India's overall economic
growth slumped to around seven percent in the past few years, the
domestic commercial aviation business continued to log a robust
growth of over 15 percent, notwithstanding a dip in the past eight
months.
"As a result of this growth, India's metros are now well
connected. The need now is to promote this kind of growth in
smaller cities, and that will be our main focus," said Singh, an
alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur.
"For this, we will soon announce a major policy for regional
airlines. We have already hired a consultant for this," said
Singh, who also has a masters of science degree from the Illinois
Institute of Technology.
The minister, who represents the Baghpat constituency in Uttar
Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, said airlines must induct small aircraft
that can land on short runways, as only 90 runways in the country
can handle jet operations.
"In fact, many out of those 90 runways are non-operational. This
leaves a gap -- how to connect places which have shorter runways.
Airlines are in touch with the manufacturers of small aircraft
that can land there," Ajit Singh told IANS.
The minister's mantra for the aviation industry comes at a time
when passenger traffic slipped 8.03 percent for the fifth straight
month in September, due to slowing economy and high operating
costs.
Minister Singh said he has already started taking steps required
to address such issues.
"High price of aviation turbine fuel is the biggest issue. We need
to rationalise it. I have already written to the petroleum
minister and I will also meet him in a couple of weeks," said
Singh, referring to a proposal to notify this fuel as a declared
good.
Once a product is listed as a declared good, a uniform sales tax
is payable on it. In the case of aviation, airlines will have to
pay a four percent sales tax across all states, as opposed to a
wide fluctuation of 3-34 percent.
Oil regulator will also be in a position to keep a check on
prices.
At present, aviation fuel in India is nearly 50-60 percent dearer
than in countries such as Thailand, Singapore or the UAE, due to
the additional 3-34 percent sales tax imposed by states. This
pushes the cost of operations by close to 30 percent.
(Rohit Vaid can be reached at rohit.v@ians.in and biz@ians.in)
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