The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that the Federal Government lost 82 per cent which is equivalent to N10 billion in revenue that ought to accrue from airport toll gates under old rules.
This was disclosed by Keyamo in a statement to the state house correspondents at the end of a two-day meeting of the federal executive council in Abuja on Tuesday, according to The Punch.
The minister decried 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 said, “Let 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.
“In 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,’Which other sector will I go to that they give me anything free?’
‘Is it because I’m 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 sector and want to get free passage? Not possible. That is how bad it is.”
In addition, he pointed out that in the past billions of naira had been lost when VIPs were gifted their E-tags.
‘So 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. I’m looking for concessionaires. I’m looking for help with decaying infrastructure.
‘They will be the first to cry out, these same VIPs – ‘why are the toilets like this? Why are your toilets smelling? Why can’t you do this?’ They are the same people, but they don’t pay for the services. So, if we want improved infrastructure at the airport, we must pay for services,” he stated.
The Minister regretted that, by the policy of exemption, he was making only about N100 million a month from one airport gate compared to approximately N260 million per month.
“I’ll 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,” he added.
The FEC has 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, to put an end to the loss.
