CHUKS OKOH
The Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) says, the new tax regime scheduled to take effect in country next year, will crumble the entire country’s aviation sector.
Speaking with aviation journalists in his national secretariat at the airport, the Secretary General of ANAP, Comrade AbdulRasaq Saidu, said when the tax is implemented, it will take aviation back to days of calamity in the sector
According to Comrade Saidu, the tax regime when introduced will rubbish all the good things achieved in the past years, stressing that a situation where by revenues are collected on behalf of agencies and give them peanuts for maintenence of facilities does not augur well.
He stated that aviation agencies are presently finding it difficult to maintain it’s facilities, pay salary and meet up with claims when they are generating their revenue adding that it will be suicidal when government decides to allocate revenue to them.
According to him, with the new tax system, agencies will not have direct access to revenue generated as it will be remitted to government directly without enough money to maintain facilities
He noted that aviation can not be toyed with as it is fund consuming sector especially in the maintenance of facilities, provision of safety and security at the airport, saying that the new tax system will never work in the industry
“If the government insist, God forbid that they will not witness aircraft falling from the sky like in 2005 and 2006. I hope the President and Commander In Chief was badly advised on the issue”
Comrade Saidu noted that the aviation sector ought to have been exempted from the new reform tax system. “Aviation deals with the lives of humans. So, whatever they are bringing in aviation must be in line with ICAO and IATA best practices”
The ANAP scribe said the unions are planning a meeting to take decision on the issue