The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Executive Director, David Kakuba has said having a passenger service charge/tax of 18% on every air ticket is making Entebbe International Airport less competitive with other international airports both regionally and globally.
He wants the tax scrapped off.
Kakuba made the remarks today while appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Physical Infrastructure to present the 2019/2020 Ministerial Policy Statement for the Works sector. He had accompanied the State Minister of Works, Aggrey Bagiire.
“Out of the zeal of our sister body (Uganda Revenue Authority), they imposed a VAT [on every air ticket] and this is the only country among the member states that charges that tax and therefore make Entebbe International Airport least competitive. This is a punishment to the taxpayer; we are pleading to you to look into this so that this VAT is removed; it is 18% on every air ticket and it is only here,” Kakuba said.
He
also
informed the Committee that the Authority is looking for more land to extend
the national airport, arguing that the move will enable
the upcoming Uganda Airlines to get its own terminal.
He also revealed that Uganda Airlines aircrafts have been registered by the
Civil Aviation Authority and will come to Uganda on 23rd April 2019
and that invitations for the acceptance ceremony have been sent out.
He said that the recruitment of staff in Uganda airlines started in September 2018 and over 12,000 applications were received; they being sorted out.
“When you look at Entebbe International airport, it is sort of a peninsula but the land that is there is very small. We are locked up there and the Entebbe Local Government allocated small pieces and even if we try to get land, they tell us to pay billions to get those small pieces. If we could have more land, we could even be able to construct an independent Uganda Airlines terminal because in CAA, we are very hopeful that with the coming in of Uganda Airlines, we need to also shine as an international airport with our own terminal,” he said.
