GENEVA, April 21, 2006 (AFP) - A new initiative to use taxes levied on airline tickets to help fund the battle against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries could begin within five months, officials said Friday.
Governments which back the plan, a brainchild of Brazil and France, aim to launch it at a session of the UN General Assembly in September, Brazilian Ambassador Carlos Antonio da Rocha Paranhos told reporters.
"We're going to start with an assumption of receipts of about 300 million dollars generated by the air ticket levy in a certain number of countries," he said after a meeting at the World Health Organisation.
"But obviously this is an ongoing process. We all know that the resources needed to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are enormous."
The initiative aims to use the funds it gathers to run a central medicine buying facility that would enable cheaper and easier access to drugs.
But it has won limited support.
Although more than 40 countries back the idea, only fourteen have pledged to impose the tax.
The United States opposes the plan, as do the airline industry and business groups, fearing it would burden carriers already struggling with high oil prices and fierce competition.
On July 1, France will be the first country to apply the new tax, which will add one to 40 euros (1.2 to 49 dollars) to the price of air tickets, depending on the distance travelled and the class of seat.
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said it was expected to bring in 200 million euros a year (246 million dollars).
"No one can miss such a wonderful chance to help humanity," he told reporters.
Experts have pointed out that donations to other drugs programmes often fall short of the money needed -- and promised -- requiring new ideas to come up with funding, such as the airline tax.
"The importance of this idea is to have funds coming in on a perennial basis that can be foreseeable, that can continue," said Da Rocha Paranhos.
WHO chief Lee Jong-wook said that the initiative would boost the international community's efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals which were set down at a summit in 2000.
That agreement aims to increase public aid to developing nations to help them fight poverty, disease and hunger.
Commenting on the air ticket tax, Lee said: "We are 100 percent behind this. We want to see it succeed, be put into action and actually save lives."
Campaigners have also welcomed the initiative.
Khalil Elouardighi of the Paris branch of Act Up said: "This is a first step to ensuring genuine sustained funding."
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