Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has debunked that it owes the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) N15 billion.
NCAA had, in a press release announced that airlines’ indebtedness accruing from unremitted 5 percent ticket sales charge/cargo sales charge (TSC/CSC) amounted to N15 billion.
The NCAA therefore directed the airlines to automate their remittances or face appropriate sanctions. Rising from an emergency meeting of airline chief executives, AON described as “completely wrong and false” the figures of what the airlines owe.
“Airlines don’t pay monthly fixed rate. The rate is a percentage of the fare paid. How can an airline like Arik Air with 27 aircraft have a fixed monthly remittance rate of N61,477,779.69 and Air Peace with an average of five aircraft to pay N109, 862,633.84 monthly? At what rate were these figures calculated to get a fixed amount?
“Even from the phantom breakdown mentioned 80 per cent of the bills are from airlines that are either out of operation or in receivership with the government today.
“Moreover, a couple of the airlines that make up the phantom numbers are not Nigerian registered airlines such as Cronos and Africa World Airlines (AWA). It is obvious that the phantom numbers cannot add up.
“We the airlines are working and struggling to stay afloat in a harsh terrain and made to bear the sin of others. NCAA
should come out with a true picture of things.”
The airlines’ umbrella organization therefore challenged the NCAA to come open with the breakdown of how it arrived at the N15 billion and publish the details of the airlines and what they owe.
“Owing is not unprecedented anywhere in the world. What matters is that whatever is owed is being serviced.
“Most of the current and active 29 AOC operating airlines are servicing their debts as agreed between themselves and the relevant agencies after the usual reconciliations.
AON said the surviving domestic carriers do not owe a fraction of what was being claimed by NCAA if put to test by an audit firm.
Continuing the challenge, the organization offered to hire renowned auditing firms to do a forensic audit NCAA and the N15 billion claims.
“AON hereby further offers to pay for an independent auditing firm at its own expense; such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, or Deloitte and Touché, to audit NCAA as an organisation, and the N15 billion NCAA claims airlines owe.
“We therefore encourage the NCAA to take advantage of this offer and open its books for this audit. The exaggeration by NCAA is tarnishing to the good image of the airlines and as such, AON is unhappy with this unfortunate, damaging and misleading pronouncement by the NCAA.”
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