A number of wealthy Nigerians who own private jets have refused to pay more than N30 billion in import duty tax, the Nigeria Customs Service.
The owners, including business moguls and leading commercial banks, have dragged the federal government to court to seek judicial review to ascertain if they are liable by law to pay the import duty imposed on them.
Investors King could recall that the Federal Government had approved the decision of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to ground 91 private jets belonging to some wealthy Nigerians over their alleged refusal to pay import duties running to over N30 billion.
The Nigeria Customs Service claimed that the owners are liable to import duties since the private jets are foreign-registered.
Subsequently, acting upon the presidential approval, the Customs Service directed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), to ground the affected private jets with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, owners of the private jets have filed a court case to stop the import duty imposed on them by NCS.
The owners who have approached the Federal High Court in Abuja are seeking the court to determine, among other things, if they were liable to pay import duty.
Investors King learnt that the owners filed their cases using their trustee companies to hide their identities.
Some of these trustee companies most of which are foreign firms include, Aircraft Trust and Financing Corp Trustee, UAML Corp, Bank of Utah Trustee, Masterjet AVIACAO Executive SA, Empire Aviation Group, and Osa Aviation Limited and Cloud Services Limited.
According to the court document, at least 17 applicants have filed cases against the import duty.
On the respondent list, include the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
While speaking on the development, the President, Association of Private Aircraft Owners, Mr. Alex Nwuba noted that the government needs to show a higher degree of transparency in the process of registering private jets.
He concluded that while the government is aiming to generate revenue from all means possible, the import duty imposed on the private jet owners might be too much.
“If you buy a private jet for $80m, you may need to pay a duty of over $10m; that may be high to some people,” he said.
