Director General of the NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu
Airline operators now risk two-yr jail terms, N5m fine for non remittance of TSC/CSC charges – NCAA
Domestic airline owners now risk N5 million in fine or a two-year prison term if their carriers fail to remit collected 5 per cent airfare, contract, charter and cargo sales charge, otherwise called the Ticket Sales Charges and Cargo Sales Charges (TSC/CSC) to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), according to a newly signed law guiding aviation remittances in the country.
Making the disclosure, Thursday, during a virtual meeting with aviation correspondents, the Director General of the NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, also informed that the new law has already been signed by President Muhammadu Buhari and gazette, and is intended to address the staggering N19bn and $7.8bn debt owed the regulatory agency by domestic airline operators over the years.
According to Nuhu, the move was also a step to strengthening the industry further, as he disclosed that the NCAA may delegate powers to the airlines to collect the 5% tax and by regulation prescribe the manner and time for making remittances of funds collected on its behalf.
“The new Act equally places a N5 million fine, a further two-year imprisonment or both on airline operator’s directors whose companies fail to remit these funds to the NCAA within the time specified,” Nuhu said.
Continuing, the NCAA chief spoke further on the reason for the new Act on remittances.
“This came about as a direct response to our parents experience in the past to collect those funds and those funds if collected can be used to train, add infrastructure for the industry, Yes, it is a direct result and to collect some those funds we have entered MoUs with airlines to get them to pay as part of the renewal process for their AOCs and everything else you must reach an agreement for the payment of all outstanding, it’s going to take time but quite a few have signed the MoU.
“The Act which comes with the additional checks may deter the continuation of the humongous debt the Authority by airlines, some of whom have refused to remit these funds held in trust.
“As at August 2022, the debt of domestic airlines to the CAA was put at N19bn and US$7.8 million which has accrued over the last few decades, the funds have become a challenge for the CAA to collect as remittances are made using force,” Nuhu said.
Reacting to calls for the revalidation of AOCs of domestic carriers I the country, the NCA DG said his agency was not ‘adverse to improvement or changes. We are in the process of reviewing the re-validity of the AOC issued to the industry. ‘
“We are working on the review of the current validity. Within the first or early part of the first quarter of next year, it will come into effect and it will explain who is entitled. As soon as it is internally done, we will release the new review.
“For scheduled operators we extend from two years to five years then unscheduled Operators those are the charters’ we are looking to extend it to three years so that we can accommodate the concerns of the industry.
“It automatically extends re-validity to give years for scheduled and three for unscheduled. Of course there are other changes and conditions. A fee for AOC now is N200,000 that’s just a return ticket from Kano to Abuja and countries like Ghana pay US$250000 and the effort the authority puts in the process from the preliminary to phase 2, phase 3,4 and 5 is a lot of you quantify it in financial terms is a lot. So we are going to look at that.
“Even among schedule operators depending on the complexity of your operations. So the fee for AOC will depend on the complexity of the operations and I think the five years gives a breather for the airlines and also on the part of the NCAA, it gives us a breather from paperwork from every two years to five years and also free us to do other oversight functions such as surveillance,” he said.
