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These “fees” date back to 1999, when, thanks to the “efforts” of the then director of the International Aviation Federation, Imad Abdel-Malik, they were added to the ticket price. A fee symbolized by “YL” was established as an “internal tax” of $ 3.3 to collect the price of printing the tickets. According to what several former travel agency owners confirm to “Al-Akhbar”.
On 1/1/2007 the adoption of the electronic ticket began and printing was dispensed with, but the rate remains in force.
According to the estimates of the Lebanese Travel Agencies Union, the annual rate of sale of air tickets reaches around one million 400 thousand tickets, which means that about four million and 620 thousand dollars annually are paid by travelers, without others in the rest from countries, in exchange for a “fake” service!
While insiders confirm that the destination of these funds “is unknown, as they do not flow to the state’s finances”, the data indicates that the main beneficiaries of the “fictitious” rate are the airlines and the “Middle East” behind of them.
Travel Offices Union Secretary Raymond Wahba explained to Al-Akhbar that the union receives many complaints from office owners due to the unreasonable tax implications that are added to ticket prices, including the YL tax, noting that “high ticket prices, contrary to what is rumored, is not in the interest of travel agency owners, who are nothing more than collectors of travelers’ money.” And confirming that the Union seeks to transfer This file to demand the cancellation of the rate, indicated that “the only ones concerned about canceling it are the airlines that, of course, will not give up the annual income of the same.
Perhaps what reinforces the “illegality” of this fee is the recognition by the interested parties of the International Aviation Federation to the owner of one of the main travel agencies in Lebanon (who declined to be identified) of his right to recover the money he paid to “print” the banknotes, after the latter decided to sue the Etihad for charging the fees “It has no basis”, “the Lebanese judiciary is still investigating the case presented by us for almost nine months” .
There is an “axiom” in the aviation “market” that establishes that national airlines have the ability to establish “standards” in the sector and “force” the rest of the companies to adopt their “recommendations”. Consequently, the cancellation or maintenance of the drawing depends on the position of “Middle East”. Al-Akhbar tried to reach interested persons at the company to inquire about the fee, but no one responded to repeated calls.
The main beneficiaries of the “fake” tariff are the airlines and the “Middle East”, not the state.
The imposition of “false” fees and taxes on the sale of airline tickets in Lebanon is not surprising, since the price of the tickets previously included a tax of around US $ 4, which was symbolized by “VL”, which he was appointed, according to a decree issued after the war, to build the sports city. And this tax was kept for many years after the completion of the city’s construction, before it was canceled by the efforts of the travel agency owners, which means that the option to cancel this fee is achievable if exerts the necessary pressure.
Nine years ago, on February 3, 2011, the then Minister of Tourism Fadi Abboud held a press conference in which he addressed the pricing of travel cards and detailed rates and taxes, given the need to devise a strategy to stimulate the I work in the tourism sector. At the time, Abboud reviewed the tax components of the price of a plane ticket in Lebanon, making it more expensive than others, including the YL fare. And the clearest conclusion that came out in his press conference at that time, saying that the main problem lies in “how to set the price of a plane ticket, since companies use the umbrella of taxes and fees and rotate the sums to raise money for their benefit without any logic ”(see banknote fraud). Nine years and the reality remains the same, while the current poor state of the travel sector in Lebanon imposes a rule of “new mindset and a different approach,” as Wahba put it.
The exit fee is an additional profit.
One of the components of the tax on the price of air tickets is what is known as exit fees, which Lebanese law has set at around 50,000 pounds. Given the need to “convert” these fees into dollars, which were previously set at about $ 33.3.
Currently, airlines pay these fees to the Ministry of Finance in pounds, while travelers pay them in dollars. Consequently, these companies make huge profits, including “Middle East”, due to the difference in exchange rates.
According to recent figures from the Finance Ministry, the total fees for leaving Lebanese territories amounted to about 86 billion pounds last year, while this year it reached about 43 billion pounds, which means that it decreased by 50%. , with an estimated difference of 43,000 million pounds. Therefore, if the companies had paid the commissions according to the new exchange rate, the money that would be used to finance would have doubled.
