Indian MRO Business Drowning in Tax Burden
by Neelam Mathews - November 29, 2018, 10:43 AM High taxes on the Indian domestic maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industry have led airlines to outsource 75 percent of the country’s $1.4 billion MRO business to international providers, sending local operations into a state of gradual decline even amid increases in fleet sizes and the prospect of large orders in the near future. In a letter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the MRO Association of India (MAOI) has called for the government to pay urgent attention to the declining industry and “offer at least a fair chance to compete with foreign MROs that enjoy a favorable import tax policy.” No response has come from the government. “We cannot understand why they do not grasp the simple math that a few hundred million dollars in taxes will far offset the revenues of a lucrative MRO industry at home,” MAOI president Bharat Malkani told AIN . “We are subsidizing foreign MROs.” As MRO requirements...