Dominica: At a three-day seventh United Kingdom-Caribbean Ministerial Forum held in Grenada, Regional Heads of Government including Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, have again been pressing top UK officials to address their concerns about Britain’s controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD), according to a report on the Dominica NewsOnline.
PM Skerrit said on his return here that the APD was “very seriously” discussed with the British Government. However, he admitted that no commitment has been given that it will be removed.
The APD represents a serious revenue earner for the UK. In acknowledging this Prime Minister Skerrit indicated that he was aware that the travel tax was bringing in about 2.2. billion pounds annually to the British Government, according to the DNO.
He said Caribbean Governments were concerned about the measure because “the application of the APD in itself, is also discriminatory, because it places the United States in a better position than the Caribbean”.
Caribbean governments have been campaigning against what they have labeled a discriminatory travel tax which has made flights to the Caribbean from the UK more expensive. The APD has increased the cost of an airline ticket significantly higher than to some other destinations including the United States.
Britain late last year ignored the case being made by major airlines in the UK, travel agencies and the Caribbean lobby for the tax to be revamped. The government in London announced at the time that a proposed 10 percent hike would go ahead as planned in April.
The DNO report said that the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has complained that the APD will hurt regional tourism, and CTO officials were last November/December wringing their hands in despair when the latest UK decision was announced.
The CTO accused the British government of ignoring statistics and other information put forward by lobbyists that showed that the tax was having a real negative impact on Caribbean tourism destinations.
PM Skerrit said that the matter was reiterated during the Grenada meeting, with the concern again put to UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague. “It is a matter that the foreign secretary indicated that he would take back to his cabinet particularly to the treasury secretary, to see whether there can be some kind of review,” an optimistic Skerrit stated.
“It’s a very serious matter which is affecting the number of tourists who leave United Kingdom into the Caribbean,” he added, noting that Airlines British Airways and Virgin Atlantic echoed the concerns of regional governments at the Grenada meeting.
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