Need to Innovate the Governance

Dear Reader,

So, Narendra Modi-led BJP has been mandated by Indian voters for its second inning in an awesomely historical manner. A remarkably massive victory to the party is expected to bring in a huge set of responsibilities. The growth of nation, building blocks of nation must be worked upon discreetly with the minimum goals of implementation.

Election campaigns in India witnessed massive but logically so, use of the fleet of fixed wing and rotary wing which are part of Business/General Aviation by almost every single important dignitary of the country. One of the most crucial reasons has obviously been that of time management. Interestingly it will not be an exaggeration if we call such aircraft as “time machines” or “time managers”. Dignitaries could reach their desired destination for the necessary campaigning exercise within highly-limited time spans. Needless to say that BJP leaders could beat their rivals reaching out to the potential voters in their respective constituencies, in extraordinaire manner.

Now that government under the leadership of Narendra Modi, Prime Minister for next 5 years, is taking shape and getting down to business, we would call for some innovation on their part to bring in some conducive changes for the Business Aviation and General Aviation fraternity in India. We have kept the theme of this issue “Innovation in Business Aviation” and therefore do call for Innovation on the part of our government as well to support this industry with some of their innovative policies and steps.

Some of the key steps could be:

CRYING NEED FOR CORRECTION OF 28 PER CENT GST

Currently the GST applied on the private jet purchase is 28 per cent which is a killer for all those interested. Around the world either the taxation is almost zero or the maximum level of the taxation roams around 7-9 per cent. It is important to note that the former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram under the regime of Congress party led government had introduced a draconian level of 25 per cent taxation way back in around 2006/2007 when his own party leader Kamal Nath went on a purchase spree of private jets. There was in fact no tax at all prior to this. Chidambaram did this not as a rational step but out of his personal rivalry with Kamal Nath. We all request the Government of the day to relook at the GST level and if they can bring the level down to either 10 per cent or to a maximum of 12 per cent, which can bring considerable relief to the potential players.

It may be worthwhile for the government to carry out an assessment of total tax collected at 28 per cent with reduced growth rate, as compared to tax collected if the growth was to jump to 10-12 per cent (instead of the present 2-3 per cent), but with a lower GST rate of 5 per cent, from the present 28 per cent. It’s important to note that largest growing BA&GA markets, like the US, have zero tax rates.

AIRPORT PARKING RATIONALISATION

The parking space for the BA/GA operators has been historically a persistent issue. Notwithstanding some relief that may have come up on this front, thanks to the consistent and relentless efforts of BAOA while dealing with the Ministry, with AAI, AERA and the airport companies; if the government can consider relooking at what could turn out to be the optimum support for industry, it will be a booster.

Need to focus on GA infrastructure. Special GA airports, heliports should be part of the plan and given to the Infrastructure development committee working directly under the PMO, rather than MoCA.

STREAMLINE THE OVERLY-REGULATED ENVIRONMENT

There have been major concerns due to draconian level of numerous regulations persisting, affecting the sentiments of the industry. Even one of the renowned political dignitary like Baijayant “Jay” Panda who also joined BJP, off-lately; suggested “drastically reduce the vast number of ‘silly and unique-to-India’ rules” while replying to the undersigned on one of the social media platforms. We urge the government to please look at the streamlining of regulations and rules which do not help much of any cause but play a major role of impediments. Regulations should work as enablers and not disablers.

We do convey our Best Wishes to Narendra Modi for his second inning as Prime Minister and also to Hardeep Singh Puri, the new Minister of Civil Aviation towards bringing happy changes and supports.

We at SP’s welcome Air Vice Marshal S.S. Chauhan (Retd) on taking over as the President of BAOA. We wish him the very best for his efforts, he will be making on behalf of the Association and also in handling of the challenges going forward.

I would also like to take this opportunity to make a special mention that Association and the BA/GA fraternity have indeed witnessed various milestones being achieved due to ongoing relentless efforts of Group Captain R.K. Bali, Managing Director of BAOA.

All this and much more in this issue of BizAvIndia. Wish you happy landings!