Khaleej Times

Indian aviation outlook very good: Iata

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geneva — The outlook for the fastest growing Indian aviation market is “very good” but infrastruc­ture and taxation issues could be detrimenta­l for its growth, according to global airlines’ grouping Iata chief Alexandre de Juniac.

Clocking high double-digit growth for more than two years, India’s domestic aviation market is one of the fastest growing in the world.

Even as he emphasised that the country’s aviation market is “promising”, the Iata’s director-general and CEO said there are concerns with respect to certain aspects.

“India outlook is very good because it is the fastest growing market... (but) we have some concerns about the Indian market. Infrastruc­ture, taxes which are too high (and) not totally clear about the new GST,” de Juniac told PTI in an interview here.

According to him, there are a lot of taxation issues and they could be “detrimenta­l to the developmen­t of aviation”.

With respect to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), de Juniac said it is a better system even though the devil is in the details.

Exclusion of airport fee and charges levied on ticket from the transactio­n value for GST purpose are among the issues being flagged by the Iata.

On whether the risks in the Indian aviation market could possibly outweigh its growth potential, de Juniac replied in the negative even as he asserted

India outlook is very good because it is the fastest growing market... (but) we have some concerns about the Indian market. Infrastruc­ture, taxes which are too high (and) not totally clear about the new GST Alexandre de Juniac, Director-general and CEO of Iata

that the government should take the right decisions in terms of costs, charges and infrastruc­ture.

“We think that probably the most worrisome item is infrastruc­ture. If you don’t have the capacity or the costs are high, it is an enormous obstacle for the developmen­t of aviation which cannot be overcome. Infrastruc­ture is the key issue,” he noted. — PTI

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