FG Yet To Remove VAT In Air Transport Nine Months After Decision

LAGOS  – Nine months after the Federal Government approved the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) from air transport, the decision is yet to be implemented.

Capt. Nogie Meggison, the President of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), had lamented that its members paid at least N10 billion annually as 5 percent VAT to the coffers of the Federal Government through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

According to AON, the remittance of VAT was negatively affecting its operations and it called on the government to emulate other countries in removing VAT from revenues collected from its members.

It was revealed that after the government’s announcement of the approval of VAT in June, last year, AON wrote series of letters to the government reminding it of the pronouncement and the need to commence implementation immediately.

But nine months after, the government was yet to reply to any of the letters written to it by the leadership of AON.

Air transport is the only form of transportation that remits VAT to the government, while rail, road, and marine don’t.

Alhaji Muneer Bankole, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Med-View Airline Plc, in an interview with newsmen, confirmed that the government was yet to implement the VAT removal policy.

He explained that the umbrella body of the airline had made attempts to ensure its implementation without success, stressing that the government still needed to inform the Ministry of Finance through memos which, he said, had not yet been done.

He called on the government to hasten the implementation to further reduce the financial burden on the operating airlines in the country, saying that while the Nigerian government was collecting five percent VAT from the indigenous airlines, their foreign counterparts that operate in the country don’t remit such, either in the country or at their bases.

He said: “As at today, the answer is negative. Nothing is being done in that direction. All we are praying for is still to have the relevant authorities to do the right thing.

“The government will still need to talk to the Ministry of Finance, budget and everybody, including the National Assembly, to have it down and become a law.”