Rajya Sabha opposes hike in Delhi airport user charges

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha today raised strong objections to levying of heavy user charges on passengers by the Delhi Airport and demanded modifications in the rules brought through an executive order last year. Raising the issue through a statutory motion, KN Balagopal (CPM) sought modifications in the Airports Authority of India (Major Airports) Development Fees Rules, 2011.[caption id=“attachment_313964” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Parliament of India. Reuters”]  [/caption] He demanded that money already collected to the tune of Rs 1,481 crores by the airport management, which is being run in a PPP model, should be deposited in a separate account and utilised for improving facilities of airports run by Airports Authority of India. The member also sought a thorough audit of such funds by the CAG. Members from several parties opposed the levying of user charges from both embarking and disembarking passengers at the Delhi airport and held that these charges were the highest in New Delhi in comparison to other airports in the world. Balagopal said the particular rule is “basically illegal” and “ultra vires of the Constitution” and that private operators are “siphoning off” public money in the name of cost over-run, which needs to be audited. Noting that they have reservations against this kind of user fee, Balagopal said, “…do not kill the hen that lays golden eggs…This is an open case of loot. They can make profit of 10 percent, 15 percent of 25 percent but 300 percent of profit is not acceptable.” Najma Heptulla (BJP) said as government slept for years in formulating the rules, private operators kept charging user fee from passengers. She said levying user charges on both the embarking and disembarking passengers was unacceptable. Praveen Rashtrapal (Congress) noted that the AAI has the right to collect development fee, but the charges should be reasonable. Slamming the increased privatisation, he said that he was in favour of Airport Regulatory Authority controlling the airport and not any private firm. “We do not see any identity of Indian government. We only see private staffs…this cannot be allowed and that too in the capital of our country… On one side we praise Nehru for public sector and now we are converging everything into private sector,” Rashtrapal said. He said the airport looks more like a shopping mall and 50 percent of the shops sell liquor. Heptulla said the government should have mopped up the resources for the airport’s development from other sources and not passed it on passengers. She said the government “slept” after passing the Act in 2004 and came out with rules through executive order only in 2011. Balagopal pointed out that the AAI had said that development fee can be fixed once in five years but the Delhi airport management did it twice since 2011, with the last increase being just few days back. He said the landing and taking off charges of a Boeing with 400 passengers is only around Rs2 lakh in Dubai, where as it is Rs 16 lakh at the Delhi airport. Balagopal said the government had given the power to Delhi airport management to collect the user fee in 2009 but the Supreme Court later said that the user and the development fee cannot be collected through an executive order and that rules should be framed. PTI