NCAA Decries Domestic Airlines Failure To Remit Taxes

Following the failure of
domestic airlines to remit the mandatory five per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) to the Nigeiran Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) due to inability to automate their operating systems and connect to the plattform provided by Avitech, the authority has rasied serious concern over the development.
The Tide  gathered that about 90 per cent of the TSC collected by the NCAA are remitted by foreign airlines through the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA), Billing Settlement Plan (BSP).
Speaking to newsmen, the National Vice President of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Mr Ahmadu Illitrius, said the association and other labour unions in the sector had deliberated over the lingering issue.
Mr Illitrius regretted that inspite of their intervention, the airlines had refused to comply with the government’s directive.
According to him, the problem is that the domestic airlines operators are not quite forthcoming with the remittance of five per cent TSC,  this is an issue we have taken up to the ministerial level.
He explained that a committee was set up in the past to look at it and a certain agreement was reached by way of liquidating the backlog of the of the debts over a period of time.
“There are local airlines in Nigeria that will not give the ticket coupons for the purpose of gathering data to determine how much TSC accrues to NCAA from the airlines, the automation is not working the way it should, because some airlines are recalcitrant violator of remittances of the TSC to NCAA.”
The union leader observed that since nothing has been done to them, other airlines are doing the same thing, stressing that non-remittance of the tax to NCAA would affect the operations of the agency as well as the financés of the Nigerian Air Space Management Agency (NAMA).
Also to be affected are Accidental Investigation Bureau (AIb), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) that share from the TSC remittances.
Most of the airlines approached on the issue refused to comment on the matter, saying that they were discussing with NCAA on how resolve the issue to the satisfaction of all the parties.
NCAA spokesperson, Mr Fan Ndubuoke, declined comments on the matter as he did not respond to the text message sent to his mobile phone.
However, a staff who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the domestic airlines were not remitting the tax to NCAA, adding that even the automation concessionaire seems not to be serious with the work.