Sanwar Hossain :
Air travellers are counting double excise duty on ticket purchases since July 1 as it has been made effective in the new fiscal year (2017-18).
This additional excise duty on plane fare on all international routes, excluding the SAARC countries, may cause sufferings to the passengers who had booked advance tickets in the just- concluded fiscal year.
From now on, excise duty on every flight will be doubled. For every seat of international and connecting flight each time passengers will have to pay Tk 1000 and Tk 1500 as activated excise duty respectively.
Except for the SAARC countries, the Asian passengers will have to pay Tk 2000 instead of previous Tk 1000 and passengers flying to the destinations like Europe, the USA and other countries will have to pay Tk 3000 instead of Tk 1500 as excise duty.
When contracted, the General Manager of Public Relations of Bangladesh Biman, Shakil Meraj told the New Nation that passengers who have booked the tickets before July 1 will have to pay additional excise duty before boarding on plane. As those were sold with previous excise duty, the additional duty would be charged in cash after reporting at the airport before boarding.
“About 30000 tickets of different routes have been sold in advance for the month of July. It may cause harassment to many passengers as they will be charged this additional excise duty right before take-off,” he said.
“There are many travellers, some of them less educated, travel through brokers. Those passengers will be affected more because they are not aware of the additional excise duty. No one will be allowed to travel if the excise duty is not paid and we are expecting to handle hazardous situation over the month of July with the advanced booked tickets,” he said.
“The additional excise duty may not impact much the business and corporate travellers. The families travelling for recreation and other purposes will be affected more,” the Biman official added.
Executive Director of Janata Travels Ltd, Md Zakir Hussain told the New Nation that many holiday makers, travellers for health check-up and business travellers had booked their tickets in advance. Those customers will now have to adjust their tickets with new imposed excise duty. The procedure has become complex as the travellers have to pay the additional excise duty and get the new tickets after reissuance.
“The customers are reacting with us on the issue and the situation is getting complex because with the additional excise duty, customers are also spending time, transport cost and other hassles,” he said.
“We are informing our customers to adjust their advanced tickets with the additional excise duty and get the reissued new one. Those who will left behind have to pay the imposed duty at airport on arrival and it may cause unwanted situation over there,” he added
On the other hand, Md Sahowud Jaman, Executive Customer Care of the Regent Airways told the New Nation that they have adjusted the new excise duty as per the government decision. The ticket fare of Dhaka to Bangkok route was Tk 24281, which is now Tk 25281 after necessary adjustment.
“We are making aware our customers about the additional excise duty. In case of advanced booked tickets we are issuing new tickets after adjustment to our customers’ and the left ones will be adjusted before boarding on plane,” he said.
“Travellers are always reluctant to pay higher prices of tickets but as it is a government decision there is no way to avoid it. To travel by air without the appropriate payment of excise duty no one will be allowed and it may cause travelers sufferings to travellers,” he added.
Besides Biman Banglades Airlines, Novo Air, Regent Airways, Sky Capital Airlines, Sky Air, US-Bangla, Best Aviation, Bismillah Airlines, Royal Bangla Airlines, TAC Airlines, THT Air Services and United Airways have adjusted the fare with the additional excise duty from July 1.
