NCAA threatens to publish names of debtor airlines

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NCCA

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Thursday threatened to publish names of airlines who had not been remitting the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) to the authority.

NCAA, in a statement by its General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr Fan Ndubuoke, in Lagos, south west Nigeria said the airlines were also not remitting Cargo Sales Charges (CSC). It gave the erring airline operators a 30-day ultimatum to comply with the directive on remittance of the outstanding payments.

The statement, said that the authority would enforce the provisions of section 27(3) of the Civil Aviation Act if they failed to pay the outstanding debts, reports VON.

“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,” it said.

According to the statement, these measures will be taken in furtherance to the Federal Government’s directives on recovery of public debt. The statement said: “It is to be noted that the offending airlines have failed to offset the accumulated debts despite several appeals, reconciliation meetings, visits and reminders.

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“The NCAA wishes to reiterate to the airlines that section 12(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 provides that `there shall continue to be a five per cent 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 five per cent ticket /cargo sales charge represents charges collected at source from the traveling public by airlines on behalf of the civil aviation agencies.”

The statement said that its non-remittance as and when due was tantamount to a breach of trust and a violation of the above provision. It said the NCAA was issuing the ultimatum to the operators who had collected, but failed to remit same to the Authority, to do so within 30 days. The statement said that the NCAA would continue to implement the“no payment, no service” financial policy to ensure complete clearance of the indebtedness to the Authority.

 

Posted by Janice Johnson