{"id":37174,"date":"2013-07-08T08:52:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T12:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=37174"},"modified":"2013-07-08T08:52:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T12:52:42","slug":"aviation-tax-increases-are-absolute-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/07\/aviation-tax-increases-are-absolute-insanity","title":{"rendered":"Aviation Tax Increases Are \u2018Absolute Insanity\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Opposition\u2019s shadow tourism spokesman described the increased Customs fees\/taxes levied on the aviation industry as \u201cabsolute insanity\u201d, and called on the Government to \u201curgently\u201d revisit its policy.<\/p>\n

Responding to the Airlines for America consortium, which warned that its members might \u201creconsider their service levels to the Bahamas\u201d in the wake of the 2013-2014 Budget\u2019s tax rises, John Bostwick, an attorney and FNM Senator, said the episode raised questions over the Christie administration\u2019s \u201cability to govern in a modern, globalised world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pointing out that the tax increases, and airline industry response, threatened to undermine efforts to increase airlift capacity into the Bahamas by 400,000 seats in preparation for Baha Mar\u2019s 2015 opening, Mr Bostwick told Tribune Business he had \u201csome serious concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n

Noting that Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, appeared to \u201cdismiss\u201d concerns raised by the private aviation industry over the new $50 refuelling stop and Customs processing fee, plus associated departure tax rises, Mr Bostwick said the situation had resulted from the Government\u2019s \u201ctotal failure to consult\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tribune Business revealed that the Airlines for America coalition, which represents key operators such as Jet Blue, Delta and American Airlines, had warned that its members \u201cmay be forced to reconsider their service levels to the Bahamas\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Serious concerns” have been raised over the increased Customs fees\/taxes levied on the aviation industry and government has been called on to \u201curgently\u201d revisit its policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[331,106,49,275],"class_list":["post-37174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-aviation","tag-customs","tag-law","tag-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}