Nigeria’s ground handling company, Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO), has canvassed for a zero duty waiver on the importation of Ground Support Equipment (GSE).
Making the appeal at an interactive session with newsmen during the recent 13th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the handling company in Lagos, its Managing Director, Mr Basil Agboarumi, revealed how SAHCO spent a “huge amount of money” on payment of customs duties on the importation of equipment in the past year.
Agboarumi, though declined to give the specific amount invested on the importation of equipment by the company, said some of its equipment take a year to manufacture from their European manufacturers.
Lamenting the failure of the government to approve duty waiver for ground handling companies, despite giving the same leverage to airline operators in the industry, the SAHCO MD maintained that the airlines and the ground handling companies operate in the same environment, yet the same privilege is not extended to the ground handling companies.
He, however, promised to continue to prevail on the government, through the National assembly, on the need to remove customs duties on imported equipment being brought into the country by handling companies.
He said, “It is a continuous push. Even if the government answers us, there is nothing wrong in asking for more, but the government is yet to listen to our pleas on this issue. We know it is the right way to go. Possibly, our voice has not been loud enough, but this time around, we will shout louder so that we can be heard.
“Don’t forget that lobbying is part of the business. We will engage the National Assembly and the executives more and all the people they have in the industry. It is the right way to go. What is sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander. We are in the same industry as one body. Whatever one body is enjoying, it is important that other bodies should also enjoy the same.
“We have paid a huge amount of money as customs duties. It is a serious pain trying to bring in equipment into this country. We suffer more trying to bring in equipment into the country than any other country around the world.
“In Europe, the equipment are manufactured there. What they just do is to move them to the airports from the manufacturers. But here, it takes us about a year to get our equipment manufactured. Then, we have to ship them to the ports and sometimes the equipment will be at the ports for about three months before we can get them out. As organisations, we pay tax too, but we are not getting much support as we expect from the government.”
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