NCAA, ALTON trade words over alleged N1bn debt by telcos

…They have promised to pay what they owe us-NCAA

…ALTON: There was no promise to pay any debt

Ladesope Ladelokun

The dust raised by the warning issued by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to Telecommunications operators in the country of an impending sanction should the latter fail to clear its alleged N1 billion debt appears to be far from settling. Despite the claim by NCAA that its warning to sanction telecoms operators over the debt they allegedly owe prompted the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) to call for a meeting between the agency and the umbrella body for Telecommunications operators, ALTON has maintained that it has no debt to pay, investigations by The Daily Times revealed. In an exclusive interview with our correspondent, General Manager of the NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, had expressed willingness to be positive that telecommunications operators in Nigeria would make good their promise to clear the alleged debt owed the agency over the years, noting that the NCAA only charged telecoms operators for the services the agency rendered. Relying on the Civil Aviation Act of 2006, he explained that owners of high rise objects-whether it is a tower or high rise building- are expected to pay height clearance to NCAA. He said it was a way of recovering the cost of directing its staff to go on inspection and other functions that must be performed. According to Adurogboye, Telecommunications operators were all paying their statutory levy until they formed an association and decided they were going to contest the annual levy in court. He said the meeting with telecommunications operators afforded NCAA the opportunity to inform tell them why it is doing what it is doing. Adurogboye said the charge was for safety and not for revenue generation, adding that no agency can tell another agency not to pay a levy that is stipulated by the law. His words: “Well, the telecoms owe us, yes, but we have had meetings with them and they have promised to pay. So, the issue of threat is not even there now. We have had meetings with them and they have promised to pay what they owe us.” He continued:” If an aircraft is flying and it has a body contact with any mast or tower, it will come down. And they all fly, we all fly. So, it is for safety. Not for revenue generation.” However, contrary to the claim of the NCAA that telecommunications operators have promised to pay the alleged debt owed the agency, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) stated categorically that there was never a promise made to pay any debt, saying there was no debt due NCAA. The Chairman of ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, told The Daily Times that, “There are issues of payments that are outstanding. We’ve agreed to go through reconciliation of records. There is no confirmed amount of money as debt. There is no debt that is outstanding. There is no promise made to pay any debt because there is no established debt that is outstanding. I don’t agree telecoms operators are owing. You cannot say somebody is owing until you’ve done reconciliation.” In a statement by ALTON, Adebayo admonished the Federal Government to review the Tax Order that was signed in 2015. He said it has created a lot of confusion in the taxes and levies regime and made the telecoms environment harsh for business, not minding the Federal Government executive order on ‘Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria. He added: “The telecommunications industry has been the been the best customer-centric sector, where issues pertaining to subscribers are taken very seriously by both the operators and the regulators, and despite all challenges, there has not for once been an outage compared to other sectors, where you are put on estimated bills and inconsistency in flight schedules that have made several people miss appointments and valued meetings just to mention few.”