Kannur International Airport | Photo: Twitter
New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation claimed that the state government has the authority to reduce the cost of the RT-PCR test in Kannur International Airport. At present, Rs 2490 is charged for the test at Kannur airport.
The high rate of RT-PCR tests has been troubling the international passengers including expatriates. The associations of the expatriates have already raised their protests against the overpriced tests.
MP K Muraleedharan had written a letter to the union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to reduce the RT-PCR rate in Kannur airport. Now, the ministry has given an explanation in reply to this letter. The Civil Aviation ministry informed that the state government has to fix the price of the RT-PCR tests in Kannur airport as the administration of the airport comes under the ambit of the state. The
Centre can only provide guidelines over the procedures to be followed for Covid tests.
When Kannur airport charges Rs 2,490 for the RT-PCR test, the test is only priced at Rs 350 to Rs 500 in labs outside the airport. Following the Centre’s withdrawal of tax on RT-PCR test price, the cost for the tests lowered to Rs 1,580 in the airports under the management of the central government. With this, the rate has been reduced only at Kozhikode International Airport in Kerala.
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