Operators fault FIRS for blacklisting carriers over migration to tax platform

The recent blacklisting of four airlines by the Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS) over delay in migrating to the tax platform designed by the agency, has been faulted by airlines ’operators.

To this end, operators are asking the revenue Agency retract the publication adding that such had negative impact on the carriers.

The agency had recently,  asked travellers to stop purchasing flight tickets or patronising the services of the airlines from 1st September 2015 if the airlines’ fail to link up to the scheme within the next three weeks.

The airlines according to the publication are  Air Peace, AZMAN , Overland Airways and First Nation Airways.

But Allen Onyema, chairman of Air Peace, said rather than going public to tell Nigerians not to buy ticket from the airlines, the FIRS should have done its home work by engaging the airlines through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) before taking a decision that has dipped sales of ticket by the affected airlines

Onyema called on the tax agency to immediately retract the public notice on the airlines .

Also, Johnson Arumemi –Ikhide, chairman of Arik Air also called for the retraction of the publication saying such was a disservice the airlines.

Onyema said the challenges facing the airlines are not limited to high cost of operations and an unfriendly investment environment and the re- introduction of import duties on aircraft spares as well absence of tax holidays for fledging carriers.

He said about the recent action of Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS) :” I will give you an example of what government did recently that I didn’t like and I doubt if this present president will support what they did. They were just being overzealous.

“Recently, a government agency, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sent out a public notice to Nigerian reading public that they should not buy the tickets of Air Peace, Overland, AZMAN  and First Nation airlines, that these airlines did not subscribe to the VAT Portal they created and which I am sure they created in conjunction with these tax consultants.

“Meanwhile, nobody had contacted us before now, we have not even seen what the VAT Portal looked like but a government agency went to the press and gave out a public notice that could derail the operations of emerging airlines that have provided thousands of jobs for innocent Nigerians which if through the agency’s action their fortunes could go down in future.

“And the most annoying thing is that if it happens so the agency cannot afford to give these Nigerians jobs. And when you give job to one Nigerian, it’s like you are giving jobs to 10 Nigerians.

“But a government agency like FIRS did this, telling Nigerians not to buy our tickets. Is that what a government agency should be doing? No! it is unheard of; people who saw it frowned at it, it was all over the world and people said what kind of government agency is this and that is government for you”, he said.

Speaking in an interview in Lagos , he said rather than encourage indigenous airline investors , some agencies of government continue to erect obstacles on their way thereby frustrating efforts to development the air transport sector .

Arumemi-Ikhide, who spoke recently at a breakfast meeting in Lagos, said government should be helping the airlines survive rather than create more hurdles.

“During the volcanic ash cloud, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic got compensated , Kenya Airways was compensated with 4500 million over the crisis in that country, Nigerian government has not really stood its ground to help the airlines here, we need to an intervention funds set aside for the sector, this should be monitored by the Airline Operators of Nigeria and the NCAA, in order to ameliorate some of the problems”,

Sade Williams