Thirty private jets currently using the nation’s airspace risk confiscation from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) because their owners defaulted duties payment, Checkout Magazine learnt.
The 30 are among the 65 verified private airplanes whose owners are believed to have evaded the payments after Temporary Importation Agreements on their jets expired.
Temporary Importation Agreement allows private jets to be brought in the country without duty payments because they were secured by bonds.
NCS spokesperson Joseph Attah disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.
Attah explained that an earlier date given to the owners to make the payments was extended by two weeks to August 6.
He warned that any owner that failed to pay by the August 6 deadline would have his private jet impounded.
His words: “Considering the rising number of compliance and the number of jets that are liable for payment of duties as well as indications by those people to do so, the NCS Comptroller-General, Col. Hamid Ali (rtd), has again graciously given them another two weeks.
“The exercise is not intended to be punitive or to embarrass them but to ensure that these private jets that operate in the country were properly documented.
“And also, to ensure every collectible revenue is collected into the coffers of the Federal Government.”
