LHC stops CAA from fee collection

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday has stopped Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) from collecting processing fee from domestic and international passengers.



The court also issued notices to the authority and others and sought reply. Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by a private airline challenging collection of exorbitant processing fee by the CAA.

During the hearing, the petitioner's counsel arguing before the court, said the authority installed a new software for handling of luggage and passengers at all airports after purchasing it from a foreign company. He said after the installation of new software, the authority started charging Rs135 from domestic and Rs160 from international passengers as processing fee.



He mentioned that only Rs8 were being charged from domestic and international passengers alike earlier, while the old software was in place. He requested the court to set aside the exorbitant processing fee collection being illegal and unconstitutional. The court after hearing initial arguments stopped CAA from collecting the fee and sought reply.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2017.