Airlines want taxman to leave expat pilots alone

New Delhi: Faced with steep rise in pilot salaries over the past couple of years, airlines have asked the finance minister for income-tax sops for expat pilots working in the country. In a pre-budget note to FM, airlines have requested the government not to tax foreign pilots under Indian income-tax laws but treat them as scarce technical manpower. If accepted, this will help the domestic airlines to cut their wage bill for foreign pilots by around one-third.
Currently, airlines bear the tax component that foreign pilots pay on any income earned in India. Airline companies have cited a now-defunct section of the I-T Act, — Sec 10 (6) vii I-T Act 1961 — which gave foreign technicians tax exemption for a period of 36 months from date of arrival in India. “This helped several industries to develop necessary skilled manpower personnel,” airlines said in a note to FM. “The exemption would help airlines to attract foreign pilots and engineers, till the time adequate pool of local talent is available,” said Air Deccan MD GR Gopinath.
Currently, over 550 expat pilots work in various domestic airlines in the country. As per industry estimates, the country needs over 3,000 pilots over the next three to five years.
20/02/07 Sudipto Dey/Economic Times

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Categories: foreign feb 2007, General Aviation feb 2007