Govt to start collecting Mopa airport’s revenues from Dec 7

Panaji: The revenue from the Manohar International Airport, Mopa, to state govt will commence from Dec 7. The state cabinet has approved the extension to the concessionaire for payment of premium from the earlier extended date of May 31 to Dec 7 on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that from Dec 7, govt will get Rs 150-200 crore (36.9%) in revenue from the airport.Sawant said that the opposition’s allegations are baseless.
He said that he announced the wrong date May 31, which was as per the earlier schedule. “I will correct the date on the floor of the house,” he further said.
Reacting to the Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai who accused govt of the extension of the tax holiday for Mopa airport, Sawant said, “A lot of people have started making noise and allegations and I want to clarify the same. There was a delay of two years due to the pending case in the Supreme Court. As we have not considered 180 days delay due to Covid-19, the date on the file was May 31, 2024,” Sawant said.
He also said that airport operation began on Dec 6, 2022, and from that date, the GMR Goa International Airport Ltd (GMRGIAL) got two years of tax holiday till Dec 7, 2024. “All the allegations are baseless, and the decision is taken as per the concession agreement. We have no intention even to make a single rupee loss to the state revenue and will never allow such a thing to happen,” he said.
Sawant said that GMRGIAL has asked for an extension till Jan 2025 but govt has calculated as per 180 days and rejected the request.
Govt entered into the concession agreement on Nov 8, 2016, with GMRGIAL for the construction and development of a green field airport at Mopa, Pernem taluka, on a public-private partnership basis with the design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) model.