The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday threatened to impound 29 jets on which the owners did not pay statutory import duties.
Customs’ spokesperson, Joseph Attah, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the 29 airplanes would be impounded if the owners did not show up at the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum given.
The NCS had on May 31, announced its plan to verify import documents of privately-owned airplanes in the country; and the exercise took place from June 7 and August 6 at the Tariff and Trade Department of the Service.
Attah said 86 private jets or airplane operators showed up for the exercise and presented relevant documents for verification, adding that 57 of them were verified as commercial charter operators and were duly cleared for operations.
He said the 29 private jets/airplanes owners and or their representatives were issued with demand notices on October 11 and were given 14 days to make payments to designated Federal Government accounts, and will be issued with Aircraft Clearance Certificates
after payment.
Attah said the Customs would not hesitate to activate enforcement procedures on identified defaulters, adding that the service had notified the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria to ensure that only privately-owned airplanes cleared by Customs were allowed to operate within the country’s airspace.