Consumer Group Slams Mavcom Over Airport Tax Issue

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PSC rates are streamlined across the airports in Malaysia. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: A consumer group has criticised the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) for failing to come up with an airport tax rate acceptable to all parties, resulting in a spat between AirAsia and the Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB)
In a statement, the Malaysian Public Transport Users Association (4PAM) said Mavcom should be “disbanded immediately” for its failure
Ajit Johl.The group’s chairman Ajit Johl said the bad blood between AirAsia and MAHB was caused by neither party but by Mavcom which was supposed to regulate economic and commercial matters related to the civil aviation industry
“The PSC has been a major thorn in the industry, especially for low-cost operators and the lawsuit only reaffirms this,” he said referring to MAHB’s lawsuit against AirAsia over RM36.11 million in uncollected PSCs
Last year, Mavcom had announced the equalisation of PSC charges of RM35 for Asean flights and RM73 for non-Asean international flights. AirAsia has only been collecting RM50 and passing that amount on to MAHB
Ajit said when the PSC was revised last year, 4PAM objected to it on the grounds that passengers should not pay the same rate for airports with different facilities and urged the previous government to maintain the rate until a PSC model acceptable to all stakeholders was developed
“Mavcom has yet to offer a credible explanation why PSC rates are streamlined across the airports.”
“We urge the transport minister, to immediately haul up Mavcom, and create a council of stakeholders to help resolve this dispute.” - FMT

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