Could the writing be on the wall for low cost airlines operating out of the UK & other European countries as the Conservative Party – once a campaigner & implementer of lower taxes – has called for purchase tax to be introduced to domestic flights?The tax would add up to 17.5 per cent on to the cost of a flight from one British city to another, but while flights to the European mainland & popular holiday islands such as Menorca aren’t specifically mentioned, one travel company believes the new policy will inevitably lead to higher fares for flights not just within Britain, but elsewhere too.
The Tory policy review calls for the UK to be a leader on green growth, noting that it was illogical for flights to attract less tax than cars & trains, with David Cameron, the Tory Party leader, saying that much of the report would be included in their manifesto at the next British General Election, which at the time could have been just weeks away as election speculation mounted in the UK, but is now likely to be in 2009 or 2010 following British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s decision not to hold an early poll.’It’s not so much that we’re convinced the Tories will win the next election & tax domestic flights’, say the travel company, ‘But by proposing new taxes on flights it leads the door open to the Labour Party, who are more likely to win, to use taxes on flights as a revenue raiser with no opposition from the Tories who are traditionally seen as the tax cutting party. We have no doubt that flights will be taxed a lot more in 2008 because the Tories have now made it a soft target for the British government of any political persuasion & the Treasury when they prepare their annual budgets.’Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/806483
