Departure tax still exists, it was never removed, and yes it is incorporated into your air fares. With Charter flights you just get the package price, but flying Scheduled your ticket prices is broken down into flight/surcharges/tax.

This new "fee" (they are not calling it a tax) is a DEVELOPMENT FEE and is being levied at the majority of Indian airports. Bombay also has a "congestion fee"!

Only India would expect users of its facilities to individually pay for their desperately needed improvement.

Of course its not a good thing for Goa, or India in general, but they simply dont care. Do you know of anywhere else in the world that charges foreigners a higher price on trains and planes? What would an Indian say if entry to Windsor Castle cost them FIFTY TIMES what it cost a Brit? Well thats the ground reality here, the least you will pay at a major ancient monument is $10 which is well over Rs500 whilst a local will pay Rs10..........only last week I was told that the Taj Mahal is now $12!

They only think of today in this country, witness the inflated prices everywhere in the tourist belt to compensate for the dwindling numbers, never even thinking that it will drive more away. I had this conversation with a Goan who up til then I had credtted with brain cells in double figures;
"Baba, if you keep overcharging and cheating the foreigners all the time, they will not come back to Goa"
There was a long pause for thought, and I was sure I had got through to him, then his face lit up and he replied........
"but they may not come again anyway, even if we charge the correct price"

I rest my case

A £10 departure tax to be used for development has recently been introduced at our local airport in Blackpool. Ryanair were so disgusted by the decision they withdrew all their flights from the airport. I think that many airports will introduce this tax eventually.

I think it was 1999 when we paid 350rps per person at Dabolim. You put your case through the scanner, then headed for the office to hand over the cash and get a ticket, then on through the rest of check-in. I remember a slight disturbance while sat on the plane whilst others were boarding and officials came on and demanded cash from those that had not paid the fee and (were very reluctant to do so). I think everyone was caught short with this as it only seemed to be introduced during our holiday - with no prior warning.
If it is enforced and we have to pay it - so be it, will we ever know if this 'development fee' will be put to the use it should be ?
Spike.

You can dress it up as you wish Departure tax / Development fee, just another stealth tax to relieve us of our cash.
As Johnny says there is already a departure tax hidden in with the flight price which only a few people ever realise is there, so why on earth do we need to pay twice ? is the £325 million our government is ploughing into the Indian economy not enough for these people ? I honestly do despair sometimes Ah well no doubt Mr Castro will be glad of my cash next year, at least you know where you are with his government.

You seem to have very short memories about the extra APD Gordon Brown dumped on us for leaving the UK

When you buy your flight ticket (whether direct with the airline, or part of a package holiday), a portion of the total cost for the ticket is for airport taxes - or "air passenger duty" (APD) as its more commonly known.
From 1st February 2007, tax on flights was increased by the UK government as mentioned in the 2006 pre-budget report by Gordon Brown.

This duty is payable on all flights from UK airports and the amount of tax you pay depends on where you are flying to:

£10.00 for flights with the UK (except Scottish Highlands and Islands)
£10.00 for economy flights to EEA countries
£20.00 for standard flights to EEA countries
£40.00 for economy flights to countries outside the EEA
£80.00 for standard flights to countries outside the EEA

For international flights, the taxes are levied by the destination country
Remember that the duty is per person travelling and that although UK air passenger duty is payable on flights departing from the UK, when you return from your holiday, the country you fly back from will 99.9% of the time impose their equivalent tax on the flight so you'll end up paying roughly the same again to come back.

Another 350 Rs is small change

Ah well no doubt Mr Castro will be glad of my cash next year, at least you know where you are with his government.

Airport Embarkation Tax

Airport Service Charge: is levied on passengers leaving Cuba: USD 25.-.
Place of payment: Airport of departure.

Yep! about two and half times the Indian tax

Another 350 Rs is small change

the article I read mentioned 1000rps for international departures.(around £13-14)
When added to the cost of the visa and processing etc it all adds up to over £100 per couple.

Its a bit like taxi driver adding 10% on your bill to pay for his next car!

Ah well no doubt Mr Castro will be glad of my cash next year, at least you know where you are with his government.

Quote:
Airport Embarkation Tax

Airport Service Charge: is levied on passengers leaving Cuba: USD 25.-.
Place of payment: Airport of departure.

Yep! about two and half times the Indian tax

We already pay 500 rps departure included in our fares, the point I was making was why do we need another tax why not just add it to the hidden one we already pay ?

Del and FTV
Well put!
I think taxi drivers here are already doing that?

Surely no one is surprised with this silly move by the Indian Gov.They have just suffered their worst tourist season since they started courting the mass market in the mid eighties, recession stalks the world, markets everywhere are crashing, the very Indian answer to all this, is, add an extra tax. We've seen it happen with shacks, sunbeds, shops etc and remarked on their novel slant on what to do to encourage tourism when times are hard, so we should not be surprised, when their Goverment follows the same crazy economics. At least othe countries in the same part of the world, such as Thailand, must be celebrating this latest effort by the Indians to shoot themselves in the foot. Alan

We already pay 500 rps departure included in our fares, the point I was making was why do we need another tax why not just add it to the hidden one we already pay ?

The point I was making you seem to be very happy to pay Gorden Brown £40 or £80 and UK Airport handling £12 to £18 to leave the UK or even Mr Casto $25 (£17.86) but because India are talking about adding to their 500 Rs (£6.93) thats been the same for years you are outraged

Why?.. I think it is Gorden Brown taking the mick

Just a look at the cost of my return Jet Airways, Mumbai-Goa-Mumbai ticket for next Nov-Dec.
Cast of flights £27.00
Cost of ticket £100.70
Taxes total therefore £73 70.
It's not just Gorden Brown thats taking the mick. Alan

gramps what dates are you flying with Jet? we leave Heathrow 15th nov return from Mumbai dec 8th
booked with Southall travel cost £409.30 don,t have a break down just the total cost,our first time with
Jet booked after Virgin cancelled Mumbai flights.
annx

I've sent you a pm re the dates Ann lan

Gramps

Things called taxes on your ticket are not always government taxes or even taxes, they include Passenger Service Charge:Insurance and security surcharge:Fuel surcharge:and strangely airline fees for just about anything they want to put on top of your fare.

From the CAA web site .........http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=589&pagetype=90&pageid=2449

Taxes, fees and charges added to air fares**

Other taxes, fees and charges: Some airlines make additional charges for hold baggage, check-in at the airport, priority boarding, card payment and so on. On international flights passengers are also likely to incur taxes, fees and charges levied by other States as well as Passenger Service Charges relating to the destination airport. These will vary by destination and are too numerous to list here.

We have just booked a "FREE" flight using our Jet privilege points but guess what you have to pay the Taxes

it is not unique to India. I loved my holidays in Koh Samui in Thailand but I had to pay to fly in to that airport and also out of that airport and then out of Bangkok. I have to say that it was annoying though!
Bali is another one. You really get annoyed handing over money just to get to leave the country.

After some thought on this, I have decided that it is not the actual idea of a departure tax that really bothers me, it's the thought of yet another queue to get through at Dabolim.
When we cam back last week there were three flights in the airport all at the same time and it was absolute chaos.
Another line to queue in would be the last straw.
Why not just put it on the holiday cost and claim from the TO, or put it on the visa?
Or simply charge more for the aircraft landing and let the airlines put it on their ticket prices?
or is that too simple?

On our trip this time we came via mumbai and left via Delhi. On booking in for our internal flight at Mumbai with Air India ( or Indian Airlines can never remember which) the check in guy seemed to be quite puzzled by something on his screen I just thought he was having trouble with the "e ticket" but we were not charged any taxes for the internal flight, the same with the return from Dabolim to Delhi. But.....checking in at Delhi was a different story, check in guy decides to inform us that the Departure Tax was not included in our ticket and we couldnt check in until it was paid. How much we asked....1300 rupees per person was the reply!! We argued but got no where, we then tried the Information desk who informed us it would have been part of our ticket price, they then got hold of another guy who said if our tickets had been purchased in the last month this would not have been included and we would have to pay. When we objected to paying 2600 rupees the response was well that is for two people as if that made it ok!!

The only other people in the queue we could see being charged this was another obviously European couple the Indians that were booking in before us in our queue were not charged although they could have paid this in there ticket price . Of course when I looked at the small print on our invoice from Southall Travel there is a paragraph stating that in some cases a departure tax will be charged that it hasnt been possible to account for in the ticket cost. So we had to go to the Indian Airlines office pay the tax and take the receipt back to check in to receive our boarding cards. The only plus side to this was we ended up with really good seats - the equivilent to BAs World Traveller Plus seats.

We were lucky we did have money on us to pay the tax but I am sure theres a lot of travellers out there who wouldnt especially youngsters on a tight budget.

hi the fee at Mumbai actually starts this April (600 rps) see article below,,, it is for modernisation!!
chilly

a new fee that will be levied at the domestic and international airports in Mumbai from 01 April 2009:

"Passengers to pay for Mumbai airport modernisation

Mumbai airport on Friday became the fourth airport in the country to be allowed to levy a development fee from passengers to bridge the shortfall in funds for modernising the facility.

The government approved collection of Rs 100 from outbound domestic passengers and Rs 600 from international passengers from April 1. The fee would be in force for four years, but be reviewed after six months.