Fees and charges? Do you mean you pay twice? What do you think you pay general taxes for? If the UK is a user-pay society then have income tax, VAT, excise duties, etc. been abolished?
General taxes such as income tax, VAT, corporation tax, excise tax, fuel tax, etc, are paid to fund government services. You have already paid for the CAA through such taxes. Any "fees" are a second payment! It's worse than I expected.
In the February 2005 issue of General Aviation magazine Martin Robinson, Chief Executive of AOPA UK, states: "The UK government now treats taxation income as its own by right, while forcing us to pay extra for any services they bestir themselves to provide." Increasingly avaricious governments use all sorts of terms to try and convince their citizens that they are paying a private sector price in a competitive market, such as they would pay to buy a loaf of bread. It does not matter whether a government and its cronies such as the CAA in the UK (NavCan & Transport Canada in Canada) call it a fee, rate, levy, subscription, duty, impost, charge, excise, price or some other term, the effect is the same. It is money that is compulsorily extracted from the citizen's pocket and the general term for this is TAX. It is in addition to general taxation and as such it is a duplicate payment.
From the comments of the posters above closing the CAA should in theory give Brits a double benefit. They ought to save both the CAA's fees and the portion of general taxes paid for the CAA. This will probably not happen in practice as somebody has to pay for duck houses, moat cleaning and pornography.
Back to the basic issue: now that EASA exists there is no need for the CAA and no need for it to be funded by ANY means. When will it be closed and the savings passed back to the UK taxpayers (general tax) and aviation community (fees)? Don't forget that somebody is funding EASA!
Last edited by Carrier; 18th Nov 2009 at 18:09.
Reason: correction