Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has again appealed to airlines to liquidate all outstanding indebtedness to the authority. The debt by airlines to the NCAA is in the region of N5 billion.
Sam Adurogboye, spokesman for the authority, in a statement yesterday, said the situation posed serious financial challenges on the various aviation agencies that benefit from the 5 percent Ticket, Charter and Cargo Sales Charges.
He noted that consequently, the NCAA would be pleased to see that the airlines put plans in place towards the “full liquidation of all outstanding indebtedness.”
Adurogboye noted that the aviation regulatory body however noticed with serious concern the huge debts of airlines as a result of failure to settle promptly invoices as at when due.
The settlement of those debts, he said, would go a long way in assisting the authority fulfil its statutory obligations to the country and the world at large.
His words: “It is pertinent to point out that the authority is fully committed to strict enforcement of compliance to safety regulations in order to engender safe operations at all times.”
The NCAA had consistently issued ultimatums to airlines to pay their debts. The agency in a ‘final notice’ to all airline operators in August this year had issued a 14-day ultimatum to erring airlines.
It said if the airlines failed 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.
The agency stated that it would 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 would also be included in the publication upon the expiration of this ultimatum.
NCAA was piqued that the carriers collect the TSC and CSC on behalf of the NCAA, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, without remitting them to NCAA that shares the revenue among the agencies based on the percentage agreed by government. It said these measures would be taken in furtherance of the Federal Government’s directives on recovery of public debt.
Muhtar Usman, director-general of NCAA, had earlier last month expressed worries at the hard stance adopted by the airlines, emphasising that all entreaties, debt reconciliation parley, visits and reminders were yet to yield result.
Usman defended the decision of NCAA on the issue, explaining that the 5 percent charges were content charged in the ticket sold to passengers.
“In other words, the general public needed to be informed that the ticket/cargo sales charge represent charges collected at source from the travelling public by the airlines on behalf of civil agencies,” he said.
The NCAA boss reiterated that Section 12 (1) of the NCAA Act 2006 provided that there shall continue to be 5 percent contract charter and cargo sales to be collected by the airlines and remitted to the authority.
