India, June 1 -- Airports in India could soon face financial penalties for failing to meet passenger service standards, with the government in the final stages of rolling out a performance monitoring framework, multiple officials aware of the development told HT.

Under the proposal, airports that fail to meet prescribed service benchmarks may be penalised up to 5% of the passenger-related charges they collect - including User Development Fee (UDF), landing and parking charges. Of this, 4% will be linked to objective parameters and 1% to subjective ones.

"The move is aimed at ensuring that service quality keeps pace with rising airport charges and upgraded infrastructure," one of the officials said.

The framework, expected to be notifie...