Airlines must pay all charges except VAT, custom duty – NCS

THE Nigeria Customs Service has said that airlines operating across the country, including Air Peace, must pay all other appropriate charges during the importation of aircrafts and spare parts, except Customs duty and Value Added Tax.

The NCS said this on Tuesday in reaction to the recent position of Air Peace airline as regards the payment of duty on aircraft spare parts and engines.

Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Joseph Attah, said in a statement that the attention of the service was drawn to a deliberate misinformation by the chairman of Air Peace concerning payments of Customs duty, VAT and other charges on imported commercial aircraft and spare parts.

He said the airline’s boss had stated that the NCS was still collecting duty and VAT in defiance of the Federal Government’s executive order on commercial airplanes and spare parts.

The NCS PRO said, “For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to draw his attention to Section 39 of the Second Schedule of the Finance Act as amended.

“It states that airlines registered in Nigeria and providing commercial air transport services are entitled to duty-free importation of their aircraft, engines, spare parts and components whether purchased or leased.”

The NCS said the Act only granted exemptions to Customs duty and VAT, and stressed that all other charges including the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme and Comprehensive Imports Supervision Scheme must be paid for the importation of aircraft and spare parts.

It said, “Such imports are therefore still required to pay appropriate charges on ETLS and CISS.

 “It was therefore in-line with the extant regulations that NCS did not collect duty and VAT on Air Peace recent import of E195-E2 with registration No. 5N-BYE but restricted itself to the collection of ETLS and CISS which amounted to the sum of N189,000,000.”