FIRS seals Aero Contractors offices over N350m tax non-remittance

Situation at Aero Contractors got further compounded as officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS) during the week sealed some offices in the airlines following tax remittances of about N350million owed the tax agency.

Our reporter found out the offices of the managing director, finance, legal departments as well as human resources were sealed along with some other strategic offices, this happened after a debt review.

Our correspondent also learnt that the FIRS came to Aero stressing that they had written severally to the airline of which none of their letters were responded to but a source said the airline never received any.

The debt according to some insider sources consist of legacy remittances before and after the airline was taken over by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria ( AMCON) and placed under receivership.

A source close to the airline however said the FIRS taxes are all pre Receivership and not current liabilities both for Aero and Arik.

Another source who confided in our correspondent however said Aero had paid N50million of that debt last year yet the FIRS came without notification and sealed some offices.

The airline is yet to make an official statement as at the time of filing this report.

Unions last week revealed the airline was in dire straits with plans to let go of 40% of its staff without redundancy negotiations among other allegations, this caused the airline to react stressing that there was no airline in the country without debt overhang.

Aero is Nigeria’s oldest commercial airline at 69.