BY KARISSMA ROBINSON
An airplane prepares for takeoff. New duty charges on aircraft may cause difficult times for commercial aircraft operators. (Photo by Torrell Glinton)
Nearly 31 commercial aviation aircraft operators in the country could soon be forced out of business as the Bahamas Customs Department is now forcing them to pay duty on aircrafts imported into the country.
According to the 2008 Customs Management Act, commercial aircraft operators are required to pay 10 per cent duty on their aircrafts. But according to Comptroller of Customs Glenn Gomez, a recent investigation revealed that no duty was paid by a number of imported aircraft operators. Since then, the department has issued letters to a number of commercial operators, who they claim have not paid duty on their airplanes, demanding a response within 14 days or their aircrafts would be seized. The situation is now causing alarm among some operators. President of the Bahamas Aviation Association (BAA) Captain Randy Butler, who appeared on the Love 97/ JCN weekly programme “Jones and Company” on Sunday said he and his members were taken by surprise when they received the letters. And as far as he is concerned most of the association’s members brought in airplanes prior to the 2008 Customs Act when there were no duties on airplanes. “On November 25 we received the letters and we have 14 days to pay the duties they claim we owe. My question is why after all these years are they now trying to enforce this. It is not fair how they are going about it,” said Mr. Butler, who is also the president and CEO of SkyBahamas Ltd. “We don’t know what kind of investigation the department has conducted to come to this conclusion. First of all, a number of operators have leased their airplanes and have not brought any airplanes into the county. In addition, most operators brought their airplanes into the country prior to July 2008, when there was no duty on airplanes.” Mr. Butler added that this is just one example of the government’s lack of knowledge of the sector and the importance it plays in the economic and social development of The Bahamas. Last week, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said that “operators are being taxed but do not want to pay their way.” “Mr. Butler use to work for the sector. He now has his own airline [Sky Bahamas] but he does not want o pay the government any fees. He is always complaining about the government charging fees. He brought his plane in and do not want to pay duty on it,” said Mr. Ingraham. But Mr. Butler said Mr. Ingraham’s comments could not be further from the truth and said he was very offended by his comment. “This industry is paying its way. We are paying landing fees, civil aviation fees, national insurance and salaries among others. So we are really offended by that. We have no problem paying monies owned to the government, but in most cases there are no monies owed to the government,” said Mr. Butler. “There may be one or two airplanes brought in since 2008. In that case we are asking the government to help us with the growth of this industry and also to give us the same kind of consideration it has given to other public transport services [taxi drivers] where they are granted exemption.” Furthermore, Mr. Butler said he does not understand how the government could ask operators to pay duty on airplanes when they don’t know if the airplanes are registered. “The airplane registration process needs to improve. There is no law requiring airplane operators in The Bahamas to register their airplanes in a specific period of time. I think if you were to ask the Customs Department for a list of registered airplanes it won’t have one and if it does it won’t be an accurate list,” said Mr. Butler. BAA Vice President and single aircraft operator, Captain Paul Harding said his business would be tremendously affected if in the event he has to pay duty on his aircraft. “There is a public misconception that there is a lot of money in the aviation industry. The cost of running a small operation is substantial. It would be a severe blow to have to pay that amount of money in just one go. Just for my one small airplane I am up to over $25,000 a year in insurance alone,” said Mr. Harding said. “I don’t think there is any accounting in what those of us in the commercial aviation business have to pay to keep our operations functioning. We are asking the government to take into consideration our cost and what we are producing for the country. We want the government to talk with us because this appears to be some kind of punishment.”
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