By the Caribbean Journal staff

Barbados will continue to lobby against the existing Air Passenger Duty band system, Tourism Minister Richard Sealy said yesterday.

The APD is charged at rates that vary according to the distance traveled from Britain.

“I was encouraged, at the very least, that we would see something done about the bands,” he said.

Sealy said the Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted that the bands under their current system were discriminatory.

“That was his declaration on the floor of the House of Commons back in March,” he said. “[The Chancellor] even cited the Caribbean to illustrate his point, referring to the fact [that] the APD is higher for all of the Caribbean than it is to Hawaii is a much longer flight. I would say I’m quite disappointed.”

Sealy said he believed lobbying was necessary at every level of the UK government, and said it would continue.

“[They have] recognised that the banding system is not fair,” he said. “That is what they said. Maintaining it means they are accepting an unfair system to raise revenue. And we cannot except that. We have to continue to continue to push to have the system altered.”