The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), yesterday, said it will publish names of all debtor airlines, their owners and the amount they owe in the dailies after the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum, which began yesterday.
CEOAFRICA gathers that the amout could be around N6 billion, and this action is due to the apathy of airlines at remmitting 5 percent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC) to the Nigerian authority.
Fan Ndubuoke, NCAA spokesman, said in a statement that this was a final notice to all airline operators, adding that the regulatory authority had issued a 14-day ultimatum to erring airlines in a notice, as failure to comply with the directive of remittance of the outstanding payments; the authority shall enforce the provisions of Section 27(3) of the Civil Aviation Act.
“NCAA will therefore take all measures contained therein to enforce the collection of the debts. In addition, the names of the debtor Airlines and amount owed shall be published in at least five national dailies.
“The names of the promoters of these airlines, directors and other related parties will be included in the publication upon the expiration of this ultimatum.
“These measures will be taken in furtherance to the Federal Government’s directives on recovery of public debt. It is to be noted that the offending airlines have failed to offset the accumulated debts despite several appeals, reconciliation meetings, visits and reminders,” the statement reads in part.
The NCAA reiterated that the airlines should know that Section 12(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 provides that “there shall continue to be a 5 percent air ticket contract, charter and cargo sales charge to be collected by the Airlines and paid over to the Authority.
“Importantly, the Authority wishes to inform the general public that the 5 percent Ticket /Cargo Sales Charge represents charges collected at source from the travelling public by Airlines on behalf of the Civil Aviation Agencies.
“However, its non remittance as at when due is tantamount to a breach of trust and a violation of the above provision. Therefore, the Authority is issuing the ultimatum to the operators who have collected but failed to remit same to the Authority to do that within 14 days,” it added.
In addition, the NCAA said it will continue to implement the “no payment no service” financial policy to ensure complete clearance of the indebtedness to the authority.
Currently, the airlines are wallowing in heavy debt as virtually all of them are owing, especially the fees payable to aviation agencies.
About two months ago, the Ahmed Joda transition committee had recommended that majority of them merge due to the fact that they were unable to offset over N130 billion debt overhang with the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.
The situation is worsened by the naira devaluation, which is heavily impacting on their businesses because their operations are dollar based.
But before now, the airlines had been found wanting in the payment of the 5 percent charge as they are supposed to remit it as soon as they collect money from passengers.
