India may tax air tickets to fund AIDS drugs

“We are talking to the finance ministry to levy a cess [levy] on domestic and international air tickets,” Ajay Prasad, civil aviation secretary, said. “We have not finalised the magnitude … It will be decided soon, keeping in mind interests of consumers.”
Indian airline operators on Thursday warned the government against imposing a levy on air tickets to fund HIV/Aids programmes, part of a new global initiative to broaden access to drugs in development countries.
Fourteen countries have pledged to implement the “international air ticket solidarity levy”, which was launched by the United Nations in June and originated three years ago with the presidents of France and Brazil, Jacques Chirac and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
01/09/06 India Daily, US

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