NCAA: Airline operators risk imprisonment, N5m fine for non-remittance of ticket sales charge

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) says airline operators who fail to remit the mandatory five percent ticket sales charge and cargo sales charge (TSC/CSC) risk a two-year imprisonment, N5 million fine, or both penalties.

This is contained in the newly introduced civil aviation act (CAA) 2022.

The five percent TSC/CSC is statutory and deducted from the total air ticket paid by air passengers to airlines, and the same applies to car­go charge.

The sum is shared among four aviation agencies: NCAA, Nigerian Airspace Manage­ment Agency (NAMA), Nige­rian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB).

President Muhammadu Buhari had assented to the CAA 2022 in August.

On the five percent TSC/CSC, section 23(1) of the CAA 2022 states thus: “There shall be a 5 percent of airfare, contract, charter and cargo sales charge payable to the authority, which shall apply on all international and domestic air transportation originating in Nigeria irrespective of place of sale, issuance of air ticket or execution of the contract of carriage.”

The CAA, in section 23 (2) further stipulated that “the 5 percent of airfare, contract, charter and cargo sales charge shall be chargeable on the total amount, excluding statutory fees and taxes – (a) paid by a passenger for an airfare; in a contract relating to carriage of persons or goods for hire and reward in the case of air transportation not involving the issuance of an air ticket; (c) paid for a charter flight; and (d) of the cargo sales”.

Section 23(10) added that “an air operator, which fails to remit to the authority, within the time specified in the regulations the 5 percent charge, commits an offence and its directors are each liable on conviction to a fine of N5,000,000 or imprisonment for a period of two years or both”.

The NCAA had threatened to sanction domestic airlines for over N19 billion debt on ticket sales in August, 2022.

The industry regulator, while appealing to the airlines to pay their debts, said the N19 billion on ticket charges were collected from passengers but the aviation firms refused to remit to the agency.

Last year, Hadi Sirika, the minister of aviation, had said Nigerian airlines owed various federal agencies to the tune of N37 billion.