Adviser asks government to review taxation policy

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Aviation Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi said the Federal Government has been requested to review its taxation policy on the air travel in order to attract more travellers.

“We have made a suggestion to the Federal government for rationale taxation on the air travel so that more travellers can be attracted and more revenue can be generated,” Sardar Mehtab while talking to newsmen here said.

Chief Executive Officer PIAC, Dr. Musharraf Rasool Cyan and Chief Operation Officer Zia Qadir Qurashi were also present on the occasion.

The Adviser to the Prime Minister said that as per business plan submitted to the Federal Cabinet, the national flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) would take less than three years to come out of deficit. “If we go by our business as submitted with the Federal Cabinet, the PIAC will overcome its deficit and start making break-even by end of year 2020,” Abbasi told newsmen.

Mehtab Abbasi told a questioner that the new Islamabad International Airport would be opened and made operational by end of the next year.

He rejected an impression that there was opposition during the cabinet meeting on re-naming the new international airport as Madar-e-Millat International Airport saying that some technical problems were involved in giving new name to the airport. He said that sine ages would have to be arranged once the airport is re-named from Italy and it was not possible due to shortage of time.

Asked about progress on taking any action against the ex Chief Executive Officer of PIAC who hails from Germany in connection with illegal A-310 plane-lease, the Adviser to the Prime Minister said the FIA was holding investigations into the matter. “We will miss our future plans and targets and if we continue to look back to the past,” Abbasi, however said.

About reports of technical problems with ATR planes which were included in the PIAC fleet, he said the ATR was a trustworthy plane but it always required high-class maintenance. He said that inquiry report of the ATR plane crash near Havalian which took precious lives would take time to complete.

Earlier, the Adviser on Aviation distributed certificates and shields among female and male flight attendants who recently completed their training and officials from the customer relations department with best performances.

He said that they were focussing on better service delivery and best customer relations as a major part of PIAC’s business plan.

The PIAC’s CEO Dr. Musharraf Rasool and Chief Operation Officer Zia Qadir Quraishi said the incumbent management was working relentlessly to transform business of the national flag carriers.

Zia Qadir said the business plan of the PIAC was prepared within a period of three months and it also got approval of the federal cabinet.