THE Accident and Investigation Bureau (AIB) is seeking an upward review of tickets sales tax paid by airlines in the country from the current five per cent to 10 per cent.
Commissioner/CEO of AIB, Dr. Felix Abali, who stated this in Lagos yesterday also appealed to the Federal Government to exempt technical personnel from the current embargo it has placed on foreign training.
According to Abali, accident investigation done by the AIB, for instance, is a specialised technical area that requires special training which can only be obtained overseas.
The government had said that embargo on overseas training and international travels was one of the cost-saving measures introduced following recent developments in the international oil market, which have affected the revenue stream of government.
Abali, who spoke yesterday at the AIB’s headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos, during the visit of the House Ad- Hoc Committee on Non-Oil Revenue and Remittances, said since the directive was announced by the Head of Service, technical personnel in the nation’s aviation industry have not been able to embark on foreign training to boost their technical knowledge.
He said it was important that government also increases the five per cent ticket sales charge paid by airlines to 10 per cent to boost funding to key aviation parastatals, stressing that paucity of funds has prevented the AIB from carrying out its duties as a responsible accident investigator. The AIB, it was learnt, gets about 3 per cent out of the 5 per cent tickets sales tax.
Abali said the AIB as parts of its succession plan required special funding to operate and hoped that the House of Representative Committee would use its good offices to push for the upward review of the ticket sales charge for the agency.
