The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has temporarily suspended its introduction of the Aviation Revenue Automation Project (ARAP) for revenue collection.
NCAA had in March issued a directive to domestic airlines on automation of their remittance of the 5 per cent ticket and cargo sales charges (TSC/CSC).
Mr. Sam Adurogboye, general manager, public relations, NCAA, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria yesterday in Lagos.
The section mandates the airlines to collect the charges paid by the passengers on behalf of NCAA and remit same appropriately in real time.
However, the NCAA and the airlines had been at loggerheads over claims that they owe the aviation agencies more than N15 billion over the non-remittance of the 5 per cent TSC/CSC.
Opposing the move, the Airline Operators of Nigeria had called for the suspension of the automation of the remittance system.
The operators said the process should be put on hold until the parameters, which constitute the statutory 5 per cent TSC/CSC, were clearly and properly defined.
Adurogboye said it was put on hold to enable further discussions between the NCAA and the airlines, with regard to implementation.
He said: “The automation is presently on hold. It was put on hold for the airlines and NCAA to further deliberate on its implementation.
“What we are doing now is ‘pay as you go’ so that we can reduce the debt owed to the authority by the airlines,” he said.