Ansett Bailout $10.00 tax departing tomorrow 01 April.

[Eastwest Loco]

Now I am really confusticated.

Got a call this evening from Loco senior who is an ex TN LAME and later an accountant for them (never have been able to work out that progression, but there you go) to advise me that the $10.00 per ticket AB tax is lifted as of tomorrow.

This is not a bad thing from the point of view of the travelling public, and will certainly clean up accounting for us leeches (the tax had no GST on it, where others do and it threw accounting systems into total confusion) but where the hell is the massive amount of loot collected.

Our AN mates are in a lot of cases living on the smell of an oily rag, and still no payout - just more protracted appeals, discussions, posturing and siphoning of what is left by the Admin.

Can somebody please tell me what in hell this all means. Surely someone has done due dilligence on the accounting for the money collected.

Best all

EWL

[nickmelb]

check ur pm's eastwest!

cheers:O

[The Flying Lad]

Sorry, it's still remaining

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s821854.htm

[Eastwest Loco]

Interesting Flying Lad.

I checked today and the Sabre System is still apalling it but at a $5.00 level per booking.

There seems to have been some sort of rejig over and above the QF move to $5.00 per one way day's multiple sector flying.

Taxes have gotten totally out of hand. One client flying DPO MEL LAX LAS ORD MAN PAR HKG MEL DPO has taxes of $358.00 on the journey, and of course there is no GST on such a journey. The base fare is $2399.00. Go figure.

Latest advice confirms it stays - apologies. But it's form seems to be a mystery.

Nice if some of it was coughed up though.

best all

EWL

[capt cynical]

Sounds like a 01/04 joke to me!!!!!!!

[Eastwest Loco]

Originated 31/03 cynical, so do not think so. Reported on Melb radio I believe.

Media 1 - Us 0

EWL

[Wirraway]

AAP

Plan to scrap Ansett levy rejected

The controversial $10 Ansett ticket levy is here to stay - for now.

Federal cabinet rejected any plans to suspend the levy despite pressure from the aviation and tourism industries.

"The government believes that further assessment will be needed to protect taxpayers' interests before a final decision can be made," a spokesman for Transport Minister John Anderson said.

The federal government imposed the $10 ticket levy shortly after the airline's collapse in September 2001 to recoup money it had paid in workers' entitlements.

The government has already collected more than $200 million from the levy but a court case means workers entitlements remain in limbo.

Cabinet rejected proposals to axe the tax or suspend it while the court case is pending.

"Cabinet's position is to cease collection of the Ansett levy as soon as possible," Mr Anderson's spokesman said.

"However further uncertainty has been created by the Ansett ground staff superannuation fund trustee's decision to appeal the Federal Court ruling."

The spokesman said Mr Anderson was hopeful of a quick resolution to the case but it is believed to be at least six months away.

Ansett employees' entitlements remain in limbo after the trustees of a staff superannuation fund last week appealed against a ruling that would have cleared the way for a further $200 million in entitlements to be distributed.

Ansett's administrators have applied to the court to have the matter heard within the next six months, leaving the Ansett levy in place for at least that long.

Earlier, Treasurer Peter Costello said the levy would remain in place until all workers entitlements were paid.

"The levy was put in place to guarantee entitlements to Ansett workers and once those entitlements have been paid then the levy will come off," he said.

©AAP 2003

[CoodaShooda]

Reminiscent of personal income tax.
Introduced for a 6 week period in 1917 to help pay for the war effort and somehow no-one ever got around to cancelling it.:rolleyes:

[Buster Hyman]

"The levy was put in place to guarantee entitlements to Ansett workers and once those entitlements have been paid then the levy will come off," he said.

If that's true, then he's guaranteeing AN staff get the lot!!:eek: I kinda doubt that's what he meant, but it sure sounds good to the punters, doesn't it?:mad:

[Servo]

As if the government is going to get rid of a cash cow, like coodashooda said, once it is introduced thats it.

The travelling public just hand over the money, get on the plane and fly to their destination. Australians as a whole are very weak minded and forget about issues once they are out of the media. The government relies on that.

Funny though, the employees of FlightWest didn't get a red cent from the government, before the old bloke passed away, he guaranteed all monies would be paid............................ alas "administrator" fees put paid to that.:(

Taxes on tickets are shocking, in some cases are more than the id 90 fare!:mad: