The Coordinating General Manager, Corporate
Communications of Aviation Agencies, Mr. Yakubu Dati, has said Nigeria loses
over N10 billion annually to private jet operators that engage in illegal
charter services, especially with foreign-registered aircraft.
Dati also alleged that many of the private jet
owners give them out for illegal charter services while they are still
documented as privately-owned aircraft for personal use on the Nigeria Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA) records.
He said by doing that these illegal operators rip
off the country of well-deserved revenue and also deny businesses to legally
registered commercial charter operators that abide by the regulations as
enunciated by NCAA.
Dati was reacting to criticism in response to a
recent circular issued by NCAA which directed non-scheduled aircraft services to
pay certain fees at take-off, stating that foreign registered aircraft should
pay $4,000 (N640,000) for every take off, except round trips; while locally
registered aircraft shall pay $3,000 (N480,000); a directive that many operators
described as stringent and impracticable.
Dati explained that it was to stop the
exploitation of the country and also to grow the business of registered charter
operators that NCAA slammed the fees to check the excesses of operators who use
their aircraft to carry out illegal services, disclosing that Nigerians who own
foreign registered private jets siphon over N10 billion annually from the
country to pay foreign cockpit crew, charges and taxes overseas.
These operators, he said, also abstain from
paying import duties, five per cent VAT charges and also five per cent charges
to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
He said the total amount of money that Nigeria
loses to these operators is estimated to be over N15 billion annually, not
including charges paid by aircraft used for charter services, which most of them
illegally deploy the aircraft when in use in the country.
He said out of 139 private jets operating in
Nigeria, 87 are registered overseas while 52 are registered locally and further
explained that when aircraft is registered overseas it is assumed that it is
visiting Nigeria as it usually registered under a foreign operator and the
implication of this is that it will not pay import duty when coming into
Nigeria.
“The aircraft pilots and engineers must be
foreigners whose licences are registered in that country the aircraft is
registered and this means that no Nigerian is operating any of these 87 aircraft
as pilot; no Nigerian engineer can be employed to maintain the aircraft. Then
every year the owner of the aircraft must pay charges to continue to maintain
the aircraft under the foreign operator in which the aircraft was registered,”
Dati also explained.
But airline operators said the new regulation is
sweeping and does not categorise the illegal and legal operators, saying that
the new circular was obnoxious and unrealistic, adding that it is despotic if
NCAA arbitrarily make laws without involving the operators and other
stakeholders. They also insisted that there must be checks and balances to avoid
the abuse of the system, even by the regulatory authority.
“Is the payment meant for navigational charges or
safety oversight or for what? We pay N5,000 for safety oversight. We are
strongly objecting to this directive because all charges must be either
aeronautical charges or for safety oversight, which is five per cent of the cost
of charter service. So why put blanket punitive measures on everybody?” an
operator queried.
Dati, defending the new directive, calculated
that the average cost of every charter is $7,000 per hour and conservatively
every aircraft operates three hours charter per day and when multiplied with 69
aircraft, which is the estimated number of foreign registered aircraft that
operate illegal charter, it amounts to 207 hours per day.
“So these aircraft earn $1,449,000 million per
day and the five per cent VAT tax and five per cent NCAA charges which they do
not pay, if deducted from the above earning would amount to $144, 900 per day.
In a year this would amount to $51, 584, 400 or N8. 2 billion and this is a
fragment of the import duties which is estimated to be in billions of dollars
which these aircraft owners did not pay before they were brought into the
country, he added.
But operators said that NCAA is incompetent,
remarking that it explained why the agency could not make laws that would
specifically punish those who infringe on the regulations guiding air operations
in the country; rather, it introduced obnoxious regulation that is sweeping and
impracticable.
culled from Thisday
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