When the Federal Ministry of Aviation, earlier in the year, unveiled the revised National Civil Aviation Policy in Abuja, many stakeholders in the aviation sector cried foul. Not a few were those that protested certain parts of the document, insisting that such parts were targeted at some enemies of the present administration. The part that worried many, at the time, was the provision in the new policy barring owners of private jets from using their aircraft to ferry their friends and associates, as well as the clause that pilots of private jets must always declare their manifest.
Many people raised issues with Part seven of the 10-part new aviation policy. The part deals with General Aviation (GA) and provides for measures to generate definite policies, develop regulatory framework and adequate infrastructure to support it. The part equally focuses on the need to control and monitor all non-scheduled flights operations – including helicopter operations (offshore and onshore) in Nigeria as well as the operation of foreign non-scheduled flights and flying schools.
For some time, the noise seemed to have been drowned by other critical happenings within the industry. The Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, the first and only international airport in Nigeria’s South-east, recently recorded its maiden international commercial flight, and the nation celebrated the feat.
But Yakubu Dati, Coordinating General Manager, Corporate Communications for the parastatals in the aviation ministry, says some Nigerians are still not comfortable with the present reforms, going on in the sector. Making particular reference to a recent column on the back page of a Nigerian newspaper, Dati says it is unfortunate that some Nigerians are bent on supporting those that deny Nigeria of its well-deserved revenue.
“It is unfortunate that this columnist was writing to protect the interest of illegal aircraft charter operators, with foreign registered fleet which are used for illegal charter flights to rip off the country of well-deserved revenue and also to destroy legally registered commercial charter operators that abide by the regulations as enunciated by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA),” Dati said.
Dati said the Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Odua, has introduced reforms that are changing every area in the industry, noting that certain people benefiting from the rot of the past would naturally want the status quo maintained and would make every effort to resist any change.
While recalling why the federal government sought to regulate the operations of private jet owners in the country, Dati noted: “Investigations have disclosed that Nigerians who own foreign registered private jets siphon over $10 billion annually from the country to pay foreign cockpit crew, charges and taxes overseas.
“These operators also abstain from paying import duties, five per cent VAT charges and also five per cent charges to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). The total amount of money that Nigeria loses to these operators is estimated to be over $15 billion annually, not including charges paid by aircraft used for charter services, which most of them illegally deploy the aircraft for use in the country. Investigations revealed that out of 139 private jets operating in Nigeria, 87 are registered overseas while 52 are registered locally.
“When an aircraft is registered overseas, it is assumed that it is visiting Nigeria, as it is usually registered under a foreign operator, and the implication of this is that it will not pay import duty when coming into Nigeria. The aircraft pilots and engineers must be foreigners whose licences are registered in that country, and this means that no Nigerian is operating any of these 87 aircraft as pilot and no Nigerian engineer can be employed to maintain the aircraft. Then every year the owner of the aircraft must pay charges to continue to maintain the aircraft under the foreign operator in which the aircraft was registered.
“It is worthy of note that almost all the monies used to buy these aircraft were earned and generated in Nigeria, but they are now spent overseas, and by registering them overseas, the owner of these aircraft abstain from paying taxes to agencies of Nigerian government. It is also worthy of note that 80 per cent of those aircraft registered overseas are also used for illegal charter operation. And when used as charter, they do not pay the five per cent VAT tax and the five per cent charges to NCAA, as they did not register as charter aircraft ab initio. Eighty per cent of 87 foreign registered aircraft is 69 and the average cost of every charter is $7,000 per hour. And conservatively, every aircraft operates three hours charter per day and when multiplied by 69 aircraft, it amounts to 207 hours per day. So these aircraft earn $1,449,000 million per day and the five per cent VAT tax and five per cent NCAA charges which they do not pay, if deducted from the above earning, would amount to $144, 900 per day.
“In a year, this would amount to $51, 584, 400 or N8. 2 billion and this is a fragment of the import duties which is estimated to be in billions of dollars which these aircraft owners did not pay before they were brought into the country. Experts put the average price of a business jet at $20 million and Customs duty of 30 per cent of $20 million is $6 million; when multiplied by 87 aircraft amounts to $522 million (about N83 billion).”
Why wondering why any patriotic Nigerian would want to defend those defrauding the country, Dati explained that the illegal operations of private jets for charter services deny employment to Nigeria engineers and pilots, discourages investment in the training of aviation personnel locally and it exposes the nation’s airspace to security breaches.
He asserted: “The objective of the newly introduced charges by NCAA is to stop the continued rip off of Nigeria and to protect genuine airline charter operators who registered as commercial operators and who abide by regulations and pay their taxes, encourage the local registration of these private jets and to stop the repatriation of huge funds from Nigeria to overseas organisations that claim to maintain these aircraft. Recent investigation revealed that illegal charter operation is hurting scheduled commercial airline service.
“We have it on good authority that countries that manufacture these private jets know that business is bad and patronage is low because of world economic downturn, so they are willing to grant Nigerians who are driven by profit without patriotism credit facility to buy their aircraft, use it to operate illegal charter in Nigeria and remit their money at agreed terms. The advantage is that the aircraft will be under the management of their recommended companies, which will provide the expatriate cockpit crew and because they are foreign registered aircraft, they are exempted from paying taxes. But what is important is that the aircraft will be brought to Nigeria to generate money for these foreign organisations and their citizens. Is this not exploitation of Nigeria by callous businessmen who lack every iota of patriotism for their country?”
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