The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has given local and foreign airlines up to 31st of December, 2018 deadline to automate/integrate and key into the Avitech platform for the remittance of the five percent Ticket Sales Charge/Cargo Sales Charge (TSC/CSC) or face severe sanctions.
The deadline was set in a letter dated 14th of September,2018 signed by the Director of Air Transport Regulation (DATR), Group Capt Edem Oyo-Ita, on behalf of the Director General of the authority, Capt Muhtar Usman,and dispatched to about 30 affected airlines.
Apart from Lufthansa German Airlines, all the other airlines are African carriers operating in the Nigerian airspace under the existing Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA).
According to the NCAA’s management, setting the deadline became imperative after reminder letters and follow-up by the authority to the affected airline’s management to comply with the Federal Government directives on Aviation Revenue Automation Project (ARAP) and abide by the provisions in the BASA between Nigeria and their respective countries did not yield the desired result.
The letter stated: “It is important to note that, in line with Part 18.12.5 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs), 2015 that “All domestic and international airlines operating in Nigeria shall forward to the Authority through an electronic platform provided by the Authority, all relevant documents such as flown coupons, passenger or cargo manifest, air waybills, load sheets, clients’ service invoices and other documents necessary for accurate billing within forty-eight (48) hours after each flight.
“In the same vein Part V, Section 12(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 stated that the 5% TSC/CSC to be collected from passengers by Airlines and paid to NCAA”, the authority added.
The collections, which are shared among the agencies are meant for the maintenance of safety, provisions of infrastructure facilities and for meeting their numerous obligations.
Government introduced the Aviation Revenue Automation Project (ARAP) for revenue collection to engender data integrity, transparency, transaction accountability and control of revenue to the NCAA in 2011 which is at no cost to airline operators.
An analysis of the compliance rate so far indicated that there was high level of compliance by the domestic airlines, which stands at 97 percent of the current domestic air transport operations.
Despite the impressive compliance rate of domestic airlines, the NCAA’s boss urged those that were yet to link on to the Avitech platform to do so or face severe sanctions.
The Authority restated its commitment to the enforcement of compliance to safety regulations with a view to ensuring safer skies in the country.
