N30bn duty: Why aviation agencies shun customs’ directive to ground 90 private jets

One month after the directive from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), aviation agencies have failed to ground over 90 private jets that are in default of the statutory import duties estimated at over N30bn, Daily Trust on Sunday reports.  The NCS had conducted a 60-day private aircraft verification exercise to determine and separate the private […]

One month after the directive from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), aviation agencies have failed to ground over 90 private jets that are in default of the statutory import duties estimated at over N30bn, Daily Trust on Sunday reports.

 The NCS had conducted a 60-day private aircraft verification exercise to determine and separate the private fleet from commercial aircraft operated by Nigerian domestic airlines, and after the verification found that 90 private jet owners have not paid the statutory import duties.  

Prominent businessmen and popular pastors operating business and corporate jets were fingered in the alleged default; which is said to be robbing Nigeria of over N30bn in revenue.

  After the expiration of the grace period for the defaulters to pay up the calculated duty, the NCS on November 2, 2021, wrote to the aviation agencies, including the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to ground the identified aircraft.  

The letter, with reference number NCS/T&T/ACG/042/s.100/VOL.II was titled: “Recovery of Aviation Import Duty on Privately Owned Aircraft Operating in the Country”, and addressed to the Director General of NCAA, Capt Musa Nuhu, and copied to the Managing Director of FAAN, Capt Rabiu Yadudu, and the Managing Director of NAMA, Capt Fola Akinkuotu.

 In the letter, NCS directed the aviation agency regulator, NCAA; the nation’s airspace management agency, NAMA; and the airport management agency, FAAN, to ground the private jets by denying them administrative and operational flight clearances indefinitely. 

The letter reads in part: “The federal government in its drive for enhanced revenues has mandated the Nigeria Customs Service to immediately recover from defaulting private aircraft owners the required statutory import duties on their imported aircraft.

 “You may wish to recall the verification exercise conducted by the NCS, initially scheduled for a 14-day period, but magnanimously extended over a 60-day period from 7th June through 6th August, 2021, following a world press conference held on 31st May, 2021. The outcome of the aforementioned verification exercise is a compilation of all private aircraft imported into the country without payment of statutory import duty.

 “In this regard, therefore, your full cooperation is being solicited to ensure the success of this initiative, and that all such private aircraft owners or representatives are denied administrative and operational flight clearances indefinitely until an NCS-issued Aircraft Clearance Certificate (ACC) is procured and presented to your organisation as proof of compliance. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, all aircraft operated in accordance with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s regulation for the issuance of Permit for Non-Commercial Flight and those issued with Flight Operations Clearance Certificate and Maintenance Clearance Certificate accordingly are affected by this directive.”

 However, findings by Daily Trust indicate that while the agencies actually got the letter, they are yet to act on it because they are yet to get a go-ahead from the Ministry of Aviation.

 “It is true that a directive was given. They wrote us a letter but we sought clarification from our supervising ministry. That is all I can tell you,” a top official of one of the aviation agencies said.

It was learned that the ministry was angry that the customs bypassed it and wrote directly to the agencies to ground the private jets.

Another top aviation agency executive said, “I agree with you that they should have written the ministry. The thing is we had to seek clarification from our ministry, and again why should customs ask us to be doing their job for them? Why should we be doing customs’ job?

“Why it is necessary for us to get clarification is that we don’t want to be caught in a crossfire, because if you stop somebody from using his property, you can become liable…”

The source further stated that it was also problematic to ground private aircraft because some of them had foreign registration.

Also, an aviation analyst, Group Capt John Ojikutu (Rtd), told our correspondent that many private jet owners were robbing the country of the required revenues from import duty.

He said the current stalemate would have been avoided with strict regulatory oversight, noting that, “Some of the aircraft are foreign registered. There is a limited time for such aircraft to remain in the country without registration, and their movements are restricted to just two airports (the customs entry point and one domestic airport). There are so many moving around the country without oversight and restriction.

“Remember, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the private aircraft operators said they had lost earnings worth about $5.5bn, not N5.5bn, that’s about N2.5tn. How much of this have they paid to the government?”

The Director of Public Affairs in the Ministry of Aviation, Dr James Odaudu, did not respond to our correspondent’s inquiry at the time of filing this report.

Similarly, the spokesman of NCS, Mr Joseph Attah, did not pick calls put to him by our correspondent, while an SMS sent to him for comment on the non-implementation of its directive was not replied.