In February 1999, Braathens announced that they would re-register all their planes in Sweden to avoid having to pay value added tax on catering and fuel. Color Air and SAS, who had their planes registered abroad, had gotten away without paying the taxes, since it only applied to Norway-registered planes. Following this announcement, the Ministry of Finance changed the rules so also foreign-owned planes had to pay the tax. The change in rules cost Color Air NOK 10 million per plane per year. From 1 July 1999, the seat tax was removed, but replaced by an equivalent tax for each passenger. This made it cheaper to fly an empty plane, but more expensive to fly a full one. Color Air had reduced the number of seats in each plane to avoid the seat tax, but increased them again after the tax was removed.