(a) whether the passenger security fund charged on every ticket fall short by more than Rs.400 Crore;
(b) if so, the reasons therefor;and
(c) the remedial or alternate action plan of the Government to compensate without increasing the Passenger Service Fee?
Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Jayant Sinha)
(a) to (c): The Passenger Service Fee is charged as part of passenger fare of air travel. The Passenger Service Fee is collected under two components, namely, Passenger Service Fee (Facilitation Component) and Passenger Service Fee (Security Component) ~ PSF(SC) ~ (Security Component). Several airport operators, including the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have reported shortfall /deficit of PSF(SC) funds. A rough assessment made in this respect on the basis of data available up to 2015-16, points out to an overall deficit of over Rs.400 Crore.The main reason for the shortfall is the increasing cost of deployment of Aviation Security Group, etc. for security at Airports.