Nigeria Lost 10bn To VIP Tolls Exemption -Aviation Minister
Nigeria Lost 10bn To VIP Tolls Exemption -Aviation MinisterThe Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has revealed that the country lost billions of naira to exempting VIPs from paying aiport toll fees.
Specifically, Keyamo said the federal government lost 82 per cent which is equivalent to N10 billion in revenue that ought to accrue from airport tollgates to VIPs’ free passage under old rules.
Keyamo revealed this to State House correspondents on Tuesday at the end of a two-day meeting of the Federal Executive Council.
The minister lamented that the ministry accumulated 82 per cent in the negative from the complimentary e-tags printed by the ministry, noting that 82 per cent of the e-tags are given free of charge to VIPs.
He stated, โLet me give you the shocking statistics. The negative figure that we get at the end of the day from the complimentary e-tags is 82 per cent, in the negative.
โIn other words, where we are supposed to have a 100 per cent contract on the e-costs from these e-tags that we print, it is only 18 per cent that we now end up selling. That is how bad it is. 18 per cent and 82 per cent of these e-tags are given out free of charge to VIPs. So, imagine the loss in my sector, and I ask myself, โWhich other sector will I go to that they give me anything free?โ
โIs it because Iโm a VIP that you say that in FCT, I should not pay land charges that you waive it for me? I pay for that sector. I pay for power. Yes, I pay for everything. So, why would anybody now come to my own sector and want to get free passage? Not possible. That is how bad it is.
โSo this has led in the past to loss of billions of naira, not millions, annually. Yet, our airport infrastructure, you know, is decaying. I am helpless. Iโm looking for concessionaires. Iโm looking for help with decaying infrastructure.
โThey will be the first to cry out, these same VIPs โ โwhy are the toilets like this? Why are your toilets smelling? Why canโt you do this?โ They are the same people, but they donโt pay for the services. So, if we want improved infrastructure at the airport, we must pay for services,โ he said.
The minister lamented that due to the policy of exemption, the ministry makes only about N100 million instead of making about N260 million from a particular airport gate every month.
โIโll give you another example. In one of the access gates, based on the count of the barrier going up and down, we are supposed to be making N250m or 260 million from that gate every month. That gate, because of exemptions, the return to us is less than N100 million every month,โ he added.
To end the loss, the FEC decided that the president, vice president, and other top government functionaries would start paying access fees or the e-tag at all 24 federal airports across the country.
Prior to this development, the president, vice president, and some government officials were exempted from paying access fees at the airportsโ gates.
