Maharashtra cuts VAT on aviation fuel to 7% for next 6 months | Mumbai News
2 min readMumbaiMay 15, 2026 07:38 PM IST
In the wake of the West Asia crisis which is likely to spiral into a financial crisis for the aviation industry, the Maharashtra government announced reducing VAT on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) from 18 per cent to 7 per cent till November 14, 2026. The state government issued the notification on May 14 which will be applicable from Friday.
“Due to the West Asia crisis, the Indian aviation industry is facing certain issues like air space closures, uncertain operations, spike in ATF prices. During these times, under the leadership of Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji, the government of India has given multiple respites to airlines in the form of Capping of ATF prices for domestic scheduled operators, reduction in Airport Charges, Emergency Credit Linkage scheme etc. One of the important expenditures in aviation industry is the VAT on ATF that is levied by state governments. Ministry of Civil
Aviation has been engaging with State governments to reduce this VAT since some time, and specifically during the crisis times,” Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on social media.
He said he was thankful to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for notifying the reduction in VAT for ATF from 18% to 7%.
Naidu informed that Maharashtra State is having 16 operational airports and highest annual air traffic amongst the states, of around 75 million passengers, daily passengers of around 2 lakhs. “This reduction in VAT will help the flight operations in all these airports, and benefit the large number of passengers, by keeping the airfares in check while the global challenges continue to push airfares upwards,” he said.
