The Civil Aviation ministry is making a renewed push to bring aviation turbine fuel under the goods and services tax regime as it looks to provide relief to airlines struggling with coronavirus situation.

"We are making a renewed push for ATF to be included in GST. 2-3 other revenue streams of state governments are linked to ATF prices, we have asked for delinking them as well," Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interaction.

"We have asked for ATF price adjustments every 15 days given fall in crude prices," Puri added.

CNBC-TV18 had exclusively reported quoting sources on March 9 that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has requested the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to update jet fuel prices every 15 days.

Currently, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices are revised on the first of every month.

"We have taken some measures, will take more," Puri added.

While the government is working on relief measures for the airlines, Puri also said that the dip in demand due to the recent travel restrictions will affect airlines but not to an extent where they cannot survive it.

"For a large civil Aviation market like India, 15-20 percent drop is not what airlines cannot take in their strength," Puri said when asked about the recent cancellations of over 600 flights till March 6 and 15-20 percent dip in daily bookings seen by India's largest airline IndiGo.

"We are committed to resolving this issue but we have to meet the challenges. We are constantly trying to take measures to assist airlines," Puri added.

Tackling The Coronavirus Pandemic

The minister said that the recent decision on suspension of all visas was an essential measure as the spread of coronavirus can be more fatal than worrying about the impact of such restrictions on non-essential travel.

"75,000 people come from abroad every day, this figure is down to 60,000 and may fall further. Expect non-essential travel will come down drastically the following advisory... not taking these measures (restrictions) and not to restrict non-essential travel will be a mistake," Puri said.

The government is currently screening all incoming international passengers and as of now, there is no need to expand the screening to domestic passengers as well. However, it is not something that the government "will hesitate in doing" if needed.

"Screening is done on all incoming passengers irrespective of country of origin. On average, 8-20 minutes is the time for screening but it may increase if 4-5 wide-body aircraft arrive simultaneously. The situation is under control, no need to panic. We have to be hyper-vigilant as one case that gets through is one case too many," Puri added.

The minister reiterated that all incoming passengers from abroad should self-declare about their travel history and health conditions as concealing information will only make matters worse.

"There were cases initially where people took self-declaration lightly; now seriousness is setting in. Consciousness settling in that it is better to own up to the problem and people realising that declaration & getting tested is better," Puri said.

Admitting that while thermal screening is not enough to detect coronavirus, Puri said that it is a necessary preliminary screening procedure and as the government does not have unlimited capacity to test passengers, it needs to first detect preliminary symptoms.

"Measures like visa restrictions are temporary, meant to control the fallout. Travel restrictions are meant to cut down on non-essential travel and do not affect people returning home from foreign countries," Puri said, adding that government will look at easing up the restrictions once the spread of coronavirus comes under control.