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Calicut to withdraw airport user's fee

DUBAI - The civil aviation authorities in India have decided to scrap the seven-year-old airport user's fee charged at Calicut Airport, following an agreement signed by the authorities and the parties who filed cases against the fee, at a meeting held in Calicut on Thursday.

According to the agreement, the user's fee would be automatically stopped from the date when all the cases filed against the fee are withdrawn. The meeting was called by T. O. Suraj, the Calicut District Collector, who is also one of the office-bearers of Malabar Airport Development Society, which decided to collect airport user's fee in 1995 in order to repay the Rs600 million loan taken from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) to meet the expenses of the runway expansion at the airport.

K. M. Basheer, General Secretary of the Sharjah-based All India Airport Users' Forum, who was also invited by the Collector for talks, informed by phone from Calicut that the authorities have agreed in writing to withdraw the fee being collected from the Gulf-bound passengers. The user's fee of Rs500 charged from every international passenger at the Calicut airport was reduced to Rs375 in January 2001.

The AIAUF, which has been spearheading the fight against the fee in Kerala courts, demanded from the Federal civil aviation authorities present in the meeting to give in writing that the fee would be scrapped, said Mr Basheer.

"We also demanded the reimbursement of the collected amount to the passengers. But, the authorities have turned down the request saying,it is not practical due to several factors," said Mr Basheer. He said the authorities have, however, agreed to make public the details of the total fee amount so far collected. Mr Basheer added that the representatives of all the other organisations and individuals who filed cases against the fee have agreed to withdraw their cases.

"The AIAUF has agreed to withdraw the case in the interest of the expatriate Malayalee community residing in the Gulf countries." In addition to the case filed at the Kerala High Court to withdraw the fee, the AIAUF had filed another case in the Vigilance Court of Calicut demanding the details of the accounts of the amount collected hitherto.