Irish finance minister opposes special tax on air tickets

Airline Industry Information, July 13, 2005

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

Ireland's Finance Minister Brian Cowen has reportedly rejected the idea of adding a special tax to airline tickets in order to provide extra aid to Africa.

The airline ticket tax proposal has been put forward several times this year and it was recently discussed by European Union finance ministers. The proposal is said to be supported by the UK, France, Germany and Luxembourg while other countries are against the idea.

Cowen has said that there is no consensus for a mandatory air ticket tax, but he would have no problem with making the issue a voluntary matter left up to individual EU member states.

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