Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia today assured the industry that he would not rest till all states in the country reduce taxes on jet fuel – fuel cost constitutes up to 40% of airline’s cost of operations.He said the issue of high VAT rates is being addressed in close cooperation with the state governments and states are seeing a benefit with reduction in taxes on fuel.“Task is not yet complete… Today, I have 13 more states left to deal with. I commit to you that I would not rest until we make that burden of the high level of VAT lower,” Scindia announced at an Assocham conference.In a recent interview to ET, Scindia had said that he is constantly working with states on the issue.“Prior to my taking over, 12 states and union territories had VAT on ATF (aviation turbine fuel) ranging from 1% to 5% and there were 24 states and UTs that had VAT ranging from 20% to 30%. We worked assiduously with all states and, I am pleased to inform you that 11 states have reduced their VAT from prohibitive levels of 25-30% down to less than 1-5%. Today, 23 states are below 5% and only 13 states above 15%,” he had said.Cost of jet fuel is a substantial cost for the airlines and they have constantly been requesting the government for a reduction in taxes. Since the taxes are charged by the states, the central government is left with an option of convincing the states on the issue.The government is also likely to discuss the issues of bringing jet fuel under GST at the GST council and would need to convince the state finance ministers on the issue.Scindia also announced that he is working on a policy for regional aircraft and helicopters, and said that the growth will come from these smaller cities of the country and the Ude Desh ke Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme has brought many airports on the aviation map of the country.Scindia said he has set up nine advisory groups, which work in a target-oriented manner with the government, including himself, to achieve various targets in different sub-sectors.He also said that the flying training organisations as another area of growth potential, and the government has announced various incentives for these training institutes to grow across the country.