The chancellor has confirmed a delay to this year’s APD rise to next year and said the government will seek to change international law to allow a per plane tax to be brought in.
Giving his annual Budget speech in the House of Commons, George Osborne said the government had “tried every possible option” to bring in a per plane APD, but had to conclude that it was “illegal in international law.”
Confirming the decision not to go ahead with this November’s planned rise in line with inflation Osborne said it had been decided to delay the rise until next year.
The news will be greeted favourably by the travel industry, which has recently formed the A Fair Tax on Flying coalition due to worries over the amount of tax being levied on travel.
Osborne told the House of Commons that the government would also look to change the “rather arbitrary banding system of APD that appears to consider the Caribbean to be further away than part of the US and Hawaii,” and bring private jets into the taxation system.