By Louis Iba
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said airlines plying the country’s domestic routes were evading the payment of statutory taxes to the industry.
According to the Director General of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, the non-remittances of taxes by both scheduled commercial airlines and those on charter operations had stifled the various parastatals in the industry whose operations are tied to the taxes.
Usman alleged that some of the airlines were not just remitting but also making use of the 5 per cent ticket, cargo and charter sales taxes which they collect from passenger tickets and which they ought to remit to the NCAA. He therefore asked the operators to reconcile all outstanding debts to the NCAA within 60 days.
“It is imperative that all unremitted funds must be forwarded in full to the NCAA immediately. These sales charges are to enable all aviation agencies carry out their responsibilities of providing safe, secure and efficient regulatory services for the overall benefits of all aviation stakeholders,” Usman said.
“The 5 per cent ticket/cargo/sales charges must be on gross ticket excluding VAT and passenger sales charge only. The airlines must desist from using these funds, ‘’ Usman said in a statement issued yesterday.
Usman also said all airlines must provide to the NCAA the breakdown of its recently introduced ‘taxes + fees’ component on all passenger tickets which included the amount due to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), and 5 per cent VAT to the NCAA..
“Any add-on charge, surcharge, that is, fuel surcharges or any other miscellaneous added on passenger ticket must be approved by the NCAA before applying these charges on passenger tickets,” Usman added.
He said the NCAA had launched a automation payment system which offers real-time transparent transactions that will remove endless reconciliation of data and reduce the high debt profile of Airlines to NCAA.