Jamaica Challenges UK's Air Passenger Duty In London

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

25 June 2009

Jamaican Prime Minister, Bruce Golding and Tourism Minister, Ed Bartlett travelled to London on June 17 to lobby against the UK government’s plans to increase its Air Passenger Duty. The Jamaican delegation met with British Members of Parliament in an effort to increase awareness of the plan's implications for the Caribbean.

The Jamaican government is leading the charge for a revision of the duty, which Minister Bartlett has argued, places destinations like Jamaica at a disadvantage. He described the regime, particularly its band system, as unfair and warned that it would undermine Jamaican and Caribbean tourism.

The revised tax will place long haul destinations like Jamaica in one of the highest bands. According to a statement from the Jamaican government, economy class passengers will face a tax of GBP50 per ticket as of November 2009, with that amount set to increase to GBP75 in 2010. The proposed tax for premium economy, business, and first class tickets, will be double this amount.

Minister Bartlett has maintained that the increased tax is inherently unfair "and not the least bit green".

"The structure of APD as an environmental tax, suggests that the impact of a flight to Jamaica or Barbados is greater than one to Miami, Los Angeles or Honolulu. Why should Caribbean countries with relatively low emissions suffer the effects of an environmental tax, in favour of the world's biggest polluter?" he quizzed.

During the meetings, he argued that the proposed new structure of the APD, in which countries are placed in charging bands determined by the distance of their capital city from London, was discriminatory, in that it favoured large developed countries over smaller ones, which operate in the same highly competitive environment.

Last year tourism from UK-residents to the Carribean amounted to USD2.4bn, with 1.24m travellers. The top four islands where most was contributed by travellers from Britain were Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Antigua.

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