Filipinos travelling abroad, “except for those exempted” like overseas Filipino workers, must either pay a travel tax of P1,620 (for economy class passage) or P2,700 (for first class passage), noted the CIAC chief.
In his commentary titled “No Travel Tax at CRK: An Idea Whose Time has come” published last Monday in a Pampanga daily, Tanjuatco said such suspension of travel tax collection “could be effective in convincing passengers to choose CRK as their point of departure.”
“Consequently, such a shift in the preference of airport passengers in favor of CRK will help decongest Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA),” Tanjuatco argued.
In a press statement, PGKM Chairman Ruperto Cruz said that “while Tanjuatco’s idea is laudable, it is far from realizable.”
“For one, it may raise expectations among the air travelling public which can easily turn to disgust, even hatred of the government when it fails to come to implementation,” Cruz said.
“Tanjuatco himself knows the difficulty of legislating this idea,” Cruz added, noting the former’s admission in his commentary that “it may take an act of the Philippine Congress to even implement a moratorium on travel tax at CRK.”
“That difficulty is further compounded by the seeming obsessiveness of this government to tax everything and anything they can think of taxing,” Cruz remarked. “The travel tax is one fat cash cow of government, so why should it stop milking it?”
What support?
Cruz likewise belittled Tanjuatco’s referencing AirAsia Philippines’ Chair Maan Hontiveros as “totally supportive” of the
no-travel-tax proposal as it “would be the next best thing to happen for Clark airport.”
“AirAsia Philippines should be the last and the least to talk about support for the Clark airport. Didn’t that airline abandon Clark which was supposed to be its very hub, only to transfer to NAIA?” Cruz said.
Tanjuatco wrote that Hontiveros “was seconded by Ridzki Kramadibrata, regional director for airports management of AirAsia Berhad, who said that Malaysia’s air travel industry boomed right around the time when AirAsia introduced budget travel and the Malaysian government abolished a similar travel tax.”
Cruz said the Malaysian experience “is totally irrelevant to Clark.”
More flights
Even if there is a suspension of the travel tax at Clark, Cruz does not see passenger increase at the airport.
“The key is to increase flights and add more destinations. Clark is down to Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore for its low-cost carrier routes. What’s the use of the Clark travel tax moratorium then to those wishing to go to Bangkok and Phuket, to Bali or Taipei, or Guangzhou?” observed Cruz.
Pogi points
“Call me malicious,” Cruz said, “But I sense some political moves in the idea of no travel tax at Clark being floated now.”
“This is some sort of convince the voters in the region that government is doing something for them, thus their reciprocal support to its candidates in the elections next year,” Cruz opined.
“Or else, Tanjuatco made his idea public to hide his failings as CIAC president, pampapogi ba,” Cruz said, noting that no flights have come to Clark since Tanjuatco took over and that passenger arrivals have continued to decline.
