As the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) resolves not to back down on its directive to airlines to automate the payment of 5 per cent ticket sales charge/cargo sales charge (TSC/CSC), a document obtained by News Gazette shows that Arik Air leads the pack of debtors with an outstanding balance of N9, 460,745,429.96 billion as of December 2016.
The airline has a monthly payment of N61, 477,779.67.
Aero’s outstanding debt is N389, 839,503.42, while Dana with monthly payment of N57, 500, 000.00 has outstanding debt of N1, 241,951,184.28.
With monthly payment of N8, 370, 066.00, First Nation Airways’ outstanding balance as of December 2016 stood at N421, 444,960.13.
Med-View Airline has a monthly payment of N30, 000,000.00 with an outstanding balance of N1, 037,629,402.23
Other indebted carriers are Overland Airways with monthly payment of N12,311,189.43 and an outstanding debt of N19,436,520.83; Azman Air with monthly payment of N20,000,000.00 and an outstanding balance of N321,729,901.04 and Air Peace with monthly payment of N109,862,633.84 and an outstanding debt of N309,484,329.92.
The debtor airlines also include those that had ceased operations. They are African World with monthly payment of N2, 314, 116.94 and an outstanding debt of N1, 204,503.55; Cronos Air, N3, 480,185.00; IRS, N1, 054,403, 662.52, Chanchangi, N442, 148, 618.52, and Discovery Air, N28, 339,864.19.
The document shows that the total monthly payment for all the airlines is N301, 835,785.88 while the total outstanding balance is N14, 731,838,064.59.
Meanwhile, NCAA said it was bent on invoking the necessary provisions of the law against defaulting airlines as the ultimatum to the airlines to automate their remittance of the statutory 5 TSC/CSC ended March 31, 2017.
The spokesman for NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye had said earlier that the agency would view a violation of the directive to automate the payment seriously.
He said both the domestic and foreign carriers were affected by the order.
“For the purpose of clarity, the regulatory authority wishes to state that the 5 per cent ticket and cargo sales charges are revenue accruable to the aviation agencies through NCAA. This is contained in Part V Section 12(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006.
“This section merely mandates the Airlines to collect the charges paid by the passengers on behalf of NCAA and remit same appropriately and in real time which have not been so.
“There is no ambiguity with regard to the components of the billing of the charges. Part 18.12.4 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs 2015) clearly provides that “the 5 per cent air ticket sales charge shall be based on the total cost of travel paid by passengers to the airline. This shall be the cost of ticket inclusive of fuel surcharge or any other charge added to the total cost of travel by the airline exclusive of government value added tax or any other tax that may be imposed by government from time to time.
“Therefore for the avoidance of doubt, all airline operators should be guided by Part 18.12.5.which says “all domestic and international airlines operating in Nigeria shall forward to the authority through an electronic platform provided by the Authority, all relevant documents such as flown coupons, passenger or cargo manifests, air waybills, load sheets, clients’ service invoices and other documents necessary for accurate billing within 48 hours after each flight,” said Adurogboye.
