Air passenger service fee: Suresh Prabhu hopeful of redressing issue soon

Suresh Prabhu. Pic/PTI

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu yesterday expressed hope that the issue of dues the Delhi airport operator owes to the CISF, which provides security cover to the IGI Airport, would be addressed soon. He made the comments after he had a meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, under whose ministry the CISF comes, and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha The Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), the airport operator, owes over Rs 600 crore to the CISF, sources said.

Report suggests that there is a demand to increase the Passenger Service Fee (PSF) to clear the dues. A PSF of Rs 154 is collected from each passenger flying out of the Delhi airport and part of the amount is set aside for security component. "Had a fruitful meeting with Hon'ble Home Minister @rajnathsingh ji along with my colleague @jayantsinha ji. Discussed issues related to Passenger Service Fee. Extremely hopeful for the redressal of the same in near future," the minister tweeted tonight. Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey was also present during the meeting. The meeting came against the backdrop of the Home Ministry warning the Civil Aviation Ministry in a communication recently that the CISF security cover for the airport could be withdrawn by the year-end if the dues are not cleared.

According to officials, the Civil Aviation Ministry is looking at possible funding from the exchequer and other options to help DIAL clear the outstanding dues. A DIAL spokesperson had earlier said that security-related expenses of the airport are met from an escrow account which has money collected as PSF. The DIAL is working in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of the Indian government and is collecting the PSF from embarking passengers as per the tariff decided 10 years ago, the spokesperson had said, adding that the entire collection is passed to an escrow account. 'Due to the cost exceeding the collection over a period of time, there is a deficit in PSF (Security Component) account. The DIAL management has had a meeting with the ADG CISF (Airports) in the recent past and apprised him about the reasons for the deficit in PSF (SC). We are coordinating with Ministry of Civil Aviation to make sure that this issue is addressed,' he had said.

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