Common Sense May Have Prevailed In Tegucigalpa

We received notification the President of Honduras has suspended the proposed increased exit tax on passengers departing on international flights from Honduras.

It must have been so easy for the Honduran Congress to raise the tax.  In a country where more than 98% of people don't bother to pay their taxes, they just wave their gavel and…. Shazam!! Suddenly there was a source of extra money… easy money at that.  They just slapped an extra $22 on every business person still coming to Honduras, and the thousands of NGO workers and missionaries.   Oh! I forgot about the rare tourists still coming to Honduras, they would get gouged too.

Apparently there was a veritable deluge of complaints to the various Honduran Consulates, newspapers and the few accessible members of the government.  I've enjoyed reading some of them posted on Honduras Weekly .  In addition there were, many, many postings on the Honduras-Healthcare user group on Yahoo.com.  It would seem that unlike similar bad decisions, the right people heard the outcries, and rational and measured thought floated to the top.  Porfino Lobo vetoed the Congress' new airport tax bill.  Here is a link to a news release from Honduras Weekly, along with an interesting comment  following. http://www.hondurasweekly.com/president-lobo-blocks-airport-exit-fee-hike-201112214619/

Unless another source of revenue for the new airport is found, I expect that a departure tax increase will be tried again eventually.  Will the Congress try to override the presidential veto?  Will Mr. Lobo bend to internal pressures?  I read a comment recently that asked why Honduras needs a new airport?  With arguably the highest murder rate in the world, the tourist trade is all but dead anyway.

It is encouraging to find that we payers of the airport exit tax just might have gathered together into a unified outcry sufficient to be heard loudly and clearly in Tegucigalpa.  We, as members of the NGOs that do so much for the people of Honduras, should be encouraged by this.  Just maybe some people are seeing what we do, and want it to continue.