PRACTICALITY - NOT POLITICS ...
Air Passenger Duty (APD) is something that comes up quite often in this column - so please bear with me on this one if you think you have heard it all before.
The big question is whether or not the Scottish Government can or will implement the proposed 50% reduction, now that APD has been devolved. The SNP no longer hold a majority in Holyrood, so are therefore dependent upon support from other parties to be able to carry the proposal forward. That support is not exactly forthcoming as it seems that all the other parties are against the reduction.
Anyway, a recent report by the BBC highlighted a report by a 'think tank' called Reform Scotland, who have said that the move to reduce APD would boost jobs, productivity and tourism as well as making travel cheaper for Scots. Granted, the increase in jobs would probably be mainly due to the increase in inbound travel to Scotland, but from a travel business perspective the overall effect of reduced APD being positive for both inbound and outbound travel makes it a difficult case to argue against.
There is a school of thought that says that any reduction in APD would have to be made up by an increase in direct personal taxation - but what this report is suggesting is that the country would benefit indirectly from the increased revenue (and therefore income tax) created by those extra jobs, plus the additional money being spent by visitors trickling through the economy.
Personally, I'm definitely with the 'think tank' mentality - let's face it, no matter what your beliefs on taxation might be - if you are in Travel, you must know that APD can only be detrimental to our business. After the Brexit vote, anything which stimulates the economy and gets the money flowing has to be a big plus. Tourism is a great driver of the economy.
The travesty here is that the public are barely aware that they are being charged £13pp for a European/short haul flight (£26 for a Domestic flight because it is paid both ways) and £73pp for a long haul flight > 2000 miles. If it were halved or abolished it is difficult to see the downside - unless you are a politician looking to collect easy money by stealth taxation ...
