Airport - ECHO'S PHILA HOUSE

An airport departure tax, or “head tax” was charged for all passenges departing Bangladesh by commercial airlines. It was not a standard fee, but a proportional one, based on the cost of the airline ticket. The money helped support airport operations.

1982
Large stamps portraying an airplane
Printer: Webwer Druckerei, Germany
Perf.: 13 1/2
Dates of use seen
20 December 1982.

DENOMINATIONS

*Tk.5 – light brown
*Tk.10 – greenish-blue
*Tk.20 – greenish-brown
*Tk.50 – purplish-brown
*Tk.100 – royal blue
*Tk.200 – wine.

The stamps applied to the back of a ticket dated 20 December 1982. There are three Tk.200, one Tk. 100, two Tk. 20 and one Tk.10 stamps on the ticket. The cancelling mark states Sonali Bank, Dilkusha Branch. It is difficult determining the different values using the colors of the stamps as the the color differences are very slight.

Three different designs of small rectangular-shaped stamps.
Printer:
Perf.: 12 1/2
Dates of use seen
14 December 1988 – 19 September 1995.

DENOMINATIONS HORIZONTAL RECTANGLES Tk.1 – purple and pink Tk.2 – purple-brown and green *Tk.5 – red and gold *Tk.10 – green and GOLD SCALLOPED ENDS OF RECTANGLE *Tk.15 – blue and oange *Tk.20 – blue and reddish brown *Tk.25 – deep blue and gray *Tk.50 – blue and gold PARTIAL CIRCLE IN CENTER *Tk.100 – red, gray and blue

These small, atractive stamps were used to collect airline taxes but later were used as excise stamps for various products. Sometines the stamps were obliterated and other times they were not.

With the discontinuance of the use of stamps, the airlines began to collect what is referred to as the foreign air travel tax, which they then paid to the government. The following illustrations are all from Emirates Airline. Apparantly the three defined areas for collecting the tax are: 1) The Middle East, 2) the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries and 3) the Rest of the World. The bottom left corner of the stub states “Collected by ABC Air Limited. Under the second part of the stub it states “Please pay foreign air travel tax while purchasing ticket as per SRO No 197/99 DTD 6-JUL-1999 of Bangladesh Govt. There are no dates on the receipts and it has not yet been determined when the various designs were introduced. If one had the ticket with the receipt, it would tell the year of use.

An early Indian Airline ticket with a Bangladesh receipt stapled under the Indian receipt.

The top receipt is for travel to the “GULF/MIDDLE EAST” and is printed under the panel with the denomination.

Notice that in the bottom receipt, under the denomination panel, is printed “REST OF WORLD EXCEPT SAARC, GULF/MIDDLE EAST”.

The left portion of this four part receipt states “Office Copy”, the second, “Passenters Coupon” and above the line, “To be attached with ticket”. The third and fourth parts state, “Airline Coupon-1, and 2 (for the last portion) and above the line it states, “To be attached with flt. coupon”.

Note that there are only three portions to this receipt, which is for the “SAARC COUNTRIES”.

This three part receipt is for the GULF/MIDDLE EAST and the tax is substantually higher than the Gulf receipt at the top. It is now Tk.1,300, compared to Tk.500.

The receipt for the “Rest of the World”.

COMMEMORATIVE STAMPS

DEFINITIVE STAMPS

SERVICE OVERPRINTED DEFINITIVE STAMPS

INFORMATION

CATEGORIES OF STAMPS

CATEGORIES OF STAMPS

CATEGORIES OF STAMPS (VEHICLE)

BANGLADESH PHILATELIC LEGENDS

SPECIAL HONOUR