The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) says its revenue point for the collection of five percent ticket sales,TSC are automated for accountability.
It explains that, the Automation process is a transparent system that obtains billable data directly from the reservation system of the airlines.
This explanation is coming on the heels of recent allegation by a stakeholder in the industry, captain John Ojikutu retired that the NCAA was shortchanging other agencies, manipulates and under declare revenue collected.
In a statement,Spokesman, NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye says statistics emanating from the Authority are accurate, verifiable and harmonized by all relevant aviation parastatals, government agencies, handling companies and the airlines both local and international.
“The Authority hereby states categorically, that there is no consultant(s) commissioned to collect its revenue on its behalf. Payments have since been automated while the processing and data analysis for both international and domestic airlines are handled by NCAA staff”.
He noted that such statistics can also be sought from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) who is responsible for billing and collection of revenue which is remitted into NCAA TSA account from the international airlines.
“This is the global practice as charged by member states (airlines) to ensure coherent fare structure to prevent exploitative and monopolistic tendencies of the airlines,” he added.
According to Adurogboye, the 5% TSC applies to all tickets originating from Nigeria with the exclusion of Diplomats, Tickets sold offshore, infants tickets and staff tickets which are classified as non-taxable tickets.
He says these money accruing from the TSC are shared among 4 agencies in the ministry of aviation excluding the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria,FAAN that computes its own Passenger Service Charge (PSC) on all categories of passengers flying through the airport.
“It is therefore important for the public to be aware that there is a disparity between NCAA’s data collection basis and FAAN’s.In addition, 5% Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) is not based on the total tickets sold but only on flown tickets.
On the other hand, FAAN computes its Passenger Service Charge (PSC) on all categories of passengers flying through the airport”.
According to him, “note that tickets sold by National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) and Airlines do not translate to taxable tickets until it is utilised by the passenger”.
The NCAA spokesman advise the public and all aviation stakeholders to disregard the misguided attempt to discredit its statistical data.
He assured Nigerians that the NCAA statistical data undergoes due diligence and the integrity can be ascertained before it is published.
