G8 considers air ticket tax to fund African aid

The G8 summit of finance ministers in London has today agreed to consider a controversial proposal to impose a levy on airline…

The G8 summit of finance ministers in London has today agreed to consider a controversial proposal to impose a levy on airline tickets to finance extra aid for Africa.

After earlier agreeing to write off €33 billion in African debt, German finance minister Hans Eichel said the group was now working on using income from airline traffic to fund an additional aid package.

Opponents of the plan have been vocal in Europe and the US but Mr Eichal said "no-one in the G8 has said anything against it. It's now on the agenda".

Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown, who has formulated a comprehensive debt-relief and aid package he wants agreed by G8 leaders at a summit in Scotland next month, today said he would work with the French and Germans who are looking at implementing the airline proposal.

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The proposed tax has been mooted for some time with US treasury secretary John Snow the most high-profile opponent. He indicated today Washington’s position has not changed however, he said if other countries agreed the United States would not object.

French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said a pilot project should begin as soon as possible. The European Commission should finalise its technical analysis for EU finance ministers.

French President Jacques Chirac originally floated the idea, telling the World Economic Forum in January that a tax of $1 per airline ticket could raise $10 billion a year to fund bigger campaigns against AIDs and other diseases in Africa.

Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and Greece are among the European objectors.