By Sade Williams
As the deadline given to domestic airlines to automate remittance of 5 percent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the controversy emanating from it rages on, test.clinztouch.com has exclusively obtained a document detailing the debt profile of some domestic airlines.
According to the document which shows non-IATA 5% TSC domestic airlines indebtedness for the month of December 2016, Arik Air which is the highest debtor with a Monthly Payments (MP) of N61,477,779.67 and Outstanding Balance(OB) of N9,460,745,429.96, Aero Contractors’ OB stands at N389,839,503.42 while the defunct Chanchangi airline OB is N442,148, 618.52.
Dana Airline monthly payments is 57, 500, 000.00 while its debt to the NCAA is N1, 241,951,184.28. FirstNation MP stands at N8,370, 066.00, its outstanding balance as at December 2016 stands at N421,444,960.13. While IRS owes N1,054,403, 662.52, Medview Airline monthly payments is N30,000,000.00 its outstanding balance is N1,037,629,402.23.
Others are Overland Airways with MP of N12,311,189.43 and outstanding balance of N19,436,520.83; AZMAN Air monthly payments is N20,000,000.00 its debts to the NCAA is N321,729,901.04. Discovery Air which ceased operations shortly after it received its Air Operator’s Certificate is indebted to the tune of N28,339,864.19.
Air Peace monthly payments is N109,862,633.84 while its outstanding balance is N309,484,329.92; African World monthly payments is N2,314116.94, its outstanding balance as at December 2016 is N1,204,503.55 and finally, Cronos Air outstanding balance stands at N3,480,185.00.
According to the document, total monthly payment for all the airlines stands at N301,835,785.88 while the total outstanding balance is N14,731,838,064.59.
While the NCAA insisted it will invoke the necessary provisions of the law against defaulting airlines as the final ultimatum to the airlines to automate their remittance of the statutory 5% Ticket Sales/Cargo Sales Charge (TSC/CSC) ended March 31, 2017, the domestic airlines under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), protested the decision has calling for the suspension of automation of revenue remittance the Authority until the parameters that constitute the 5% Ticket and Cargo Sales Charge are clearly and properly defined.
The Authority has however insited that there is no going back on its earlier directive on automation, crying that the debts from the airlines has hit N15 billion.
