Passengers using Caracas’s Maiquetía Airport will heceforth be charged an additional Bs.127 tax for the privilege of…breathing air.
We. Shit. You. Not.
35 thoughts on “Life Imitates Mel Brooks”
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Caracas Chronicles 
Maybe the toxic air explains the irritability, frustration, headaches, nausea, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, etc etc . that travellers experience in Maiquetia.
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No Canuckelhead,
Those depressing feelings happen to everyone that enters Venezuela. It is just a sad place to be.
Why can’t they just open a few windows and enjoy the fresh air coming down the mountain?
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I guess the problem with opening the windows is that the fresh mountain air of Vargas is loaded with dengue.
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It comes with 9mm and 7.62 lead from litoral’s shantytowns
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How much are the total taxes?
52 dollars for the airport tax plus 127 Bs at what rate?
Están pelando.
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Those are the taxes one pays at the airport. Then there are the taxes charged to the airline tickets; which are much higher than those paid at other countries for a similar route. And then the government doesn’t understand why air tickets are so expensive.
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There are four Venezuelan taxes and fees on airfares:
(Applicable tax unit [TU] for 2014 = 127 Bs.)
International Airport Departure Tax = 3.80 TU
International Airport Exit Tax = 3.00 TU
Luxury Tax = 6% of base fare
INAC CAA Improvement Fee = 1% of base fare
If you think these taxes don’t make up much, get ready for a surprise. Giving Venezuela-USA flights as an example, 69.6% of all taxes and fees imposed on airfares goes to SENIAT and 30.4% goes to the IRS. 18% of an airplane ticket price is taxes and fees.
These percentages change a little when you fly to other countries.
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And if the portable air-quality monitor wirelessly linked to my smartphone gives me a reading which exceeds the safety limits, I suppose I get a refund? These are the people that can’t keep the lights on or the water pure, and I am expected to believe they can guarantee air quality? Right.
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I love this, is like they’re setting themselves up for a punchline when a headline pops up in December: “Maiquetía Airport evacuated due to fungus in AC system that is deemed highly hazardous, hundreds rushed to Emergency rooms, Attorney General promises investigation into contractors of ozone work done in early 2014”
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Typo: henceforth
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Remember that in Venezuela there are no real taxes, indeed those are fines -you don’t get anything in return. Forget about sit quality.
That’s another way to get rich! Some one of them…….
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No sit quality, air quality!
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Not even the Chiguire bipolar could come up with this one.
Tenemos patria
Or better said, Tenemos torta, una gran torta de mier..
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this is really amazing, as ozonation is a totally discredited method of improving air quality. ozone itself is one of the most dangerous gases you can breathe, and “Available scientific evidence shows that at concentrations that do not exceed public health standards, ozone has little potential to remove indoor air contaminants.” Thus spake El Imperio: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html
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Yeah, the “best” case scenario is that it’s a complete scam and they’re just adding a bit more of air freshner.
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Wow, it’s even crazier than I thought. This is a special tax being charged to make the air in the airport even more dangerous than it already was.
“Even at high concentrations, ozone may have no effect on biological contaminants embedded in porous material such as duct lining or ceiling tiles (Foarde et al, 1997). In other words, ozone produced by ozone generators may inhibit the growth of some biological agents while it is present, but it is unlikely to fully decontaminate the air unless concentrations are high enough to be a health concern if people are present. Even with high levels of ozone, contaminants embedded in porous material may not be affected at all.”
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Gents,
Be cognizant that this is either:
1) a third tier bureaucracy way to make some extra income with kick backs and embezzlement
2)Another outrageous lata de humo, to have people entertained while bad mouthing the regime’s policies and decisions.
In any case, no scientific evidence is needed, no economic evaluations, The gobernacion thought of the plan, some empresa de maletin was awarded the contract, and the higher ups are worried about larger embezzling schema (Air France drug smuggling case anyone?…)
La raspadera de olla entrando en fase intensa.
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No vale, no están pelando. Tienen US$30.000 millones depositados en cuentas en el exterior… no los han movido por un problemita con el mecanismo de toma de decisiones… :-)
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Eso es paja, imposible que el pais este tan jodido y ese dineral en efectivo pegando brincos por ahi. Ese cuento NO me lo creo.
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Chiguire Bipolar style
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How much til it stop functioning (like everything owned by the government except GN forces during protests) and they still make the people pay the tax?
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Ok, the headline may sound funny but in reality it’s not. INAC has already been collecting 1% of base fares for airport improvements and a cleaner, better airport A/C system is itself an improvement.
So, why do they need to create a fifth tax on airfares?
Didn’t the collected taxes help pay this improvement?
Is there debt for having done this enhancement?
Supposing we’re not smelling something fishy on all this, wouldn’t it be more reasonable to raise the improvement fee a bit to repay the alleged debt?
I can’t help but remember the time Diosdado Cabello scammed travelers for years when he ordered airport departure taxes be collected separately in cash through an airport booth.
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Travel has dropped substantially in the last 6 months and all forecasts are that it will continue falling as getting plane tickets gets more difficult , travel forex less accesible and fare prices rise exponentially . This has to have an impact on airport revenues , making them fall preicipitously , This in turn necessitates the creation of new taxes , of new sources of revenue (never mind the flimsy rationale to justify them) to coverup the shortfall in revenues . This might explain the new ozone tax , No way does it justify it .
We live in a country in which govt measures are never justifiable but can be explained on more practical grounds . this is one of them !!
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You might’ve answered question #1 but current events just answered question #4. Air tax is being collected separately through an airport booth. It screams Diosdado scam completely.
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I still cant understand what is the rationale for doing this that way instead of, you know, “this is the operational cost of the airport. Includes it being clean. Here is your bill, Mr Airline”
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Mr. Airline ain’t around as much. The government won’t pay his invoice.
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Well but at least you could deduct it from the invoice you are not paying.
No, seriously, why isnt this just an expense, to be paid by the companies that use the airport (which of course are going to put it in your ticket)? Is there any reason, either a good one or more probably a “revolutionary” one for doing it this way?
Of course once Mr Airline is not flying there the tax is also irrelevant this way.
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This appears to be similar to the way Condo Associations in Venezuela are operating. In a normal country with a stable currency, Condo Associations include a percentage in the monthly fees for capital improvements and extraordinary expenses. This way, there is always a balance in an account to work from. In Venezuela, no one wants to have Bolivars sitting in a bank de-valuating, so they end up making special assessments for everything other than normal operating expenses. It looks like the airports are now being run the same way.
On another note, I don’t have the traffic figures to estimate how much Bs.127 per traveler will generate, but doesn’t it seem that this will generate revenue far in excess of what the system proposed should cost?
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This is just a scam.
I beg to ask (this is a REAL QUESTION): is there one of the 30-33 ministers that is responsible for this?
Can someone – journalist or something he can’t ignore like Capriles – ask him why he is doing this when this ozon cleaner is rubbish and no one does that elsewhere and who is going to verify the money is going to good use? And what was the public bidding for this and who won it?
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No, there is not. No minister is involved in this. Jorge Luís García Carneiro, governor of Vargas state, decreed the air tax.
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Hahahahaaa! Damn, my sides! Hahahahahaa!
The “socialist, concerned about the poor, and humanist revolutionary government of the people that’s democratic even when they kill any dissidents” has begun to PRIVATIZE AIR!
LMAO Hahahahaa! xD
Come on, excuse me for laughing this much, but it’s amazing how the regime really has an active imagination to create new ways to steal money from the people.
Oh, boy, things like this should be recorded in history to show the extent of the chavistas’s rapacity and hipocrisy.
But, as many of us know already, the MUD, instead of showing this new swindle to the public as they should do to keep attacking the regime, will just do as always and shove their heads where the sun doesn’t hit and ignore it.
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This is a guiso at the Gobernación level, not the Airport Authority. It is Estado Vargas that is collecting it, it is decree by the Governor. I guess they figured that since after 40 years trying to streamline airport taxes so that airlines collect it, it was time to reintroduce some cumbersome procedure and make some money on the side.
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wait… it gets better:
http://www.el-nacional.com/sociedad/Impuesto-respirar-molesto-retraso-pasajeros_0_438556360.html#.U7VhIfYVc1w.twitter
they had to cancel payment in cash as (of course) the taquilla got robbed while charging the 127 BsF. Flights were delayed for up to 3 hours waiting for passengers to pay with cards.
Here’s Chiguire Bipolar version of this latest bit of daily absurdity
http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/03-07-2014/aeropuerto-de-maiquetia-estrena-robot-que-te-pone-de-cabeza-y-te-quita-el-dinero/
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So, like I predicted, the government set themselves up for a hilarious punch line – I apologize, but I am really laughing at the fact that an airport that is FULL of military got robbed.
On the other hand, I am kind of amazed that my a prediction that we would all be laughing at this in 5 months time was off by 4.96 months (actually, I’m not so much amazed as I am giggling like a schoolgirl).
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The reason and explanation for an extra tax is simple. It is the answer to the following question, and it applies to much of what the VBGovernment does:
Why do you charge so much in taxes?
Because we can.
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