Kwam het volgende stukje tegen op ABS-CBN News. IATA begint nu ook, zij het te laat, enige druk uit te oefenen:
MANILA, Philippines - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged the Philippines to scrap excessive taxes imposed on international airlines, saying they are uncompetitive.
Taxes charged foreign airlines, including the 3% common carrier’s tax (CCT) and the 2.5% gross Philippine billings (GPB), have been a hot issue in the aviation industry especially after Air France-KLM decided to halt flights between Manila and Amsterdam last year.
Warning anew about the heavy toll the taxes have on the economy, IATA said, “Failure to address the current myopic policies will see neighboring countries having a competitive growth advantage with negative consequences for the Philippines.”
IATA was quoting a study done by the Oxford Economics on 54 countries to quantify the benefits of aviation to economy.
Oxford Economics said in its study that eliminating the CCT and GPB would be “win-win” for the government and aviation sector.
It cited three benefits from this: a 2.5% reduction in total cost of international passenger travel to the Philippines, a 1.9% increase in number of foreign arrivals, and up to $78 million in gains for the local tourism industry.
IATA called on Philippine authorities to strongly reconsider its decision to impose the taxes, saying aviation is a key enabler of travel and tourism, and contributes substantially to the economy and employment.
Based on the Oxford Economics study, the aviation sector contributes P35.5 billion or 0.4% of the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP).
When tourism is taken into account, this increases to P192.2 billion or 2.4% of GDP.
The study also showed that aviation makes a substantial contribution to public finance with a total tax contribution of over P26 billion.
“From visiting family and friends to shipping high-value products, 27 million passengers and 596,000 tons of freight travel to, from and within the Philippines. The value placed on these services is likely to significantly exceed the expenditure. Oxford Economics estimates that the benefit to travelers is worth around P575 billion and the estimated benefit to shippers is about P34 billion,” IATA said.