On the night of this Thursday, March 30, the Minister of Transportation, Guillermo Reyes, after a meeting that he held at the Casa de Nariño and that had a central theme of the crisis derived from Ultra Air and Viva announced several measures that the government is studying to deal with the situation.
Among the measures evaluated are the reduction of VAT on air tickets, which is currently 19%, and the tax charged on gasoline. In this sense, by order of President Gustavo Petro, a Unified Command Post (PMU) was activated to respond to the situation experienced by thousands of travelers in the national territory.
The minister also said: “An economic analysis is being carried out for the purposes of some transfers, between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transportation, to give Satena the necessary resources, so that it could operate and guarantee tourism to the destinations that I had Ultra Air at this time”announcing a strengthening of this government-owned airline.
Crisis Ultra Air: riots at San Andrés airport
What conclusions did the meeting leave?
The Minister also announced that on instructions from the Head of State it was decided to declare “San Andrés, Leticia, Santa Marta, Cartagena and Riohacha as social destinations, so that under the 2020 Tourism Law it is allowed to adopt measures that will alleviate some burdens, particularly in terms of taxes.”
In the same sense, Reyes stated that the Government will analyze a project that allows the reduction of the cost of VAT and the fuel rate.
“By instructions from the President, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, we entered into a process of analysis and evaluation of a project and a series of initiatives to reduce taxes, in particular the value added, today 19%, and the tax charged on gasoline,” he said.
The Minister stressed that within the framework of the meeting it was determined that Ultra Air had sold 16,000 tickets, between March 30 and April 10, to routes such as San Andrés, Rionegro Santa Marta, Cali, Cartagena and Bogotá.
“The President arranged to convene the airlines, including Satena, to offer availability of air seats to Colombians who had tickets for this Holy Week and for the remaining days,” he said.
President has all the planes of the FAC
In addition, the head of the Transportation portfolio recalled that very early the President ordered all FAC planes, including the presidential plane, to be ready for the transport of affected users.
In fact, he reiterated that the Head of State suspended all his trips so that the presidential plane can be used in the midst of the crisis.
In this order of ideas, affected travelers are transferred in a Boeing 737 of the FAC to destinations such as San Andrés, Rionegro and Cali.
It should be noted that, in addition to the Minister of Transportation, the Superintendency of Transportation, the Colombian Air Force and Civil Aeronautics participated in the aforementioned meeting.