(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India - AERA (Amendment) Bill, 2019 | Dhyeya IAS® - Best UPSC IAS CSE Online Coaching | Best UPSC Coaching | Top IAS Coaching in Delhi

(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India - AERA (Amendment) Bill, 2019

Topic: Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India - AERA (Amendment) Bill, 2019

Guest:

Ajay Dua, (Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry)
Air Commodore B. S. Siwach (Retd., Director General, Aviation Safety Management Society of India)
Ganapathy Subramaniam, (Chief of Bureau, Puthiya Thalaimurai)
Chakshu Roy, (Head of Outreach, PRS Legislative Research)

Topic Description:

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2019 that seeks to raise threshold for an airport to qualify as 'major airport' and hence reducing the tariff-fixing power of airport regulator to a fewer airports. The Bill was passed after discussion and reply on it by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. Currently, an airport with annual passenger traffic of 15 lakh or more is defined as major airport and tariff at such airports are determined by Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA). The Bill raises the threshold traffic to 35 lakh, so, many airports would come out of the purview of the regulator. Once the Bill becomes an Act, many airports for which various fees such as landing and parking charges which are currently determined by AERA will go. Tariff at these airports would be determined by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The amendment also empowers the Aviation Ministry to bid out airport projects on the basis of pre-determined tariff.