Three banks settle aircraft duties amid Customs crackdown

At least three major banks have paid outstanding duties on aircraft in their possession, with one of the financial institutions recently making a payment of about N3bn.

The development comes as efforts intensify to recover outstanding obligations related to aircraft financing, with several other debtors also lined up to pay.

Trusted multiple sources familiar with the development, who spoke to Sunday PUNCH in confidence due to the lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, confirmed that a major bank recently paid for its aircraft, while other institutions were also expected to settle their obligations.

“A major bank has paid for its aircraft; a couple of other people are also being lined up; we’ll wait and see,” one of the sources at the aviation ministry in Abuja stated.

Another official at the Lagos airport said, “Quite a few people have paid. Even though some of them have gone to court before, they have now made their payment.

“So hopefully, we will start seeing some results. The last payment was about N3bn by a bank. One of the major banks just made a payment on its aircraft, along with a couple of others that have done so before now. Three major banks have paid up on all their aircraft.”

The latest payments followed an earlier recovery drive by the Nigeria Customs Service, which recovered more than N30bn in unpaid import duties from owners of private aircraft, a development that was recently confirmed by an official of the NCS.

• NCS says women dominate informal border trade
• NCAA fines RwandAir N15m
• Stakeholders back Customs post-clearance audit for transparency

The exercise, which involved collaboration between the Customs Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, targeted aircraft owners with outstanding duty obligations, and several banks, oil and gas companies and individuals subsequently made payments.

The Customs Service had also warned that enforcement would continue against owners of aircraft with unpaid duties, disclosing that court orders had been secured for the impoundment of about 10 aircraft pending forfeiture.

This prompted several aircraft owners and organisations to regularise their obligations, with officials saying the recovery exercise had already yielded significant revenue for the Federal Government.

The development followed the intervention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which last year sent a list of privately owned aircraft to the Nigeria Customs Service for verification of their import duty status.

According to a Customs official, the EFCC sought confirmation of which aircraft had paid the required duties and which were still liable, leading both agencies to agree to collaborate on the investigation.

The collaboration subsequently saw several aircraft owners invited by the EFCC to provide documents relating to their aircraft and their duty obligations. Some owners initially argued that their foreign-registered aircraft were not liable to Nigerian import duties, but the EFCC proceeded to seek details of the aircraft.

Investigations also uncovered cases where aircraft were allegedly registered through offshore companies before being leased to Nigerian entities linked to the same owners, prompting demand notices for outstanding duties.