AON Trustee flays $300 helicopter landing levy
The controversy over the $300 helicopter landing levy deepened yesterday as the President of Topbrass Aviation Limited, Captain Roland Iyayi, condemned levy on helicopters that provide shuttle services to oil and gas companies. The fee is being collected by NAEBI Dynamic Concept Limited on behalf of the federal government in collaboration with the Nigerian Airspace […]
The controversy over the $300 helicopter landing levy deepened yesterday as the President of Topbrass Aviation Limited, Captain Roland Iyayi, condemned levy on helicopters that provide shuttle services to oil and gas companies.
The fee is being collected by NAEBI Dynamic Concept Limited on behalf of the federal government in collaboration with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), which gives start up for the take-off of aircraft across all the airports in the country.
NAMA had recently given oil companies operating helicopters a one-week ultimatum to comply with the levy.
Daily Trust learnt that the compliance level has been very low despite the ultimatum.
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Captain Iyayi, a Trustee of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), said yesterday that before the new fee was introduced, the helicopter companies have been paying all their taxes in accordance to industry regulations, insisting that the additional $300 landing fee is a burden on the operators which may undermine the industry.
“When this matter came up during Hadi’s time (former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika), we shut it down because we felt the industry was overtaxed. Introducing something like this, we felt, was even going to be inimical to the growth of the industry. Again, if you ask all these individuals who are justifying the collection, they always say to you that the money is going to the government, but the money is leaving the aviation sector.
“In aviation, the money earned in aviation is meant to be used to develop aviation. But in Nigeria the money is used for other purposes and not ploughed back to develop the industry.
With the new tax laws, the money earned will go to Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) before it is now redistributed. Definitely things will get worse in the industry.”