BASA Agreement: Good Politics, Bad Economics

Harold Demuren, DG, NCAA Former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA , Dr. Harold Demuren yesterday described the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, entered into between Nigeria and other countries of the world as good politics but bad economics because the country cannot match other countries to benefit from the principle of reciprocity .

Harold Demuren, DG, NCAA Speaking during a breakfast meeting organised by Aviation Round Table ,ART, at Ikeja, Lagos, Dr. Demuren while responding to the recent BASA agreement signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in Qatar stressed that Nigeria hardly gains anything meaningful from such agreement. According to him, it was because of the inability of Nigeria to gain from BASA agreement that the NCAA had to introduce the five percent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) adding that he would prefer if that charge was increased to ten percent so that the additional five percent could go into government coffers. Demuren regretted that even the royalties and taxes levied on foreign airlines because of the inability of the country to favourably compete in the BASA deal were also removed due to political reasons which he decried was killing the country and the aviation industry. He said that it was the accumulation of the TSC, royalties and charges that constitute the BASA funds that was domicile in NCAA noting that in those days, foreign airline used to pay 180 dollars to Nigerian Airways per passenger for the extra frequencies into the country.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Healthy diet for the rainy season

When fibroid co-exists with pregnancy

Aviation Sectors Groans Under Rising Cost of Operations