As part of the Federal Government drive to boost its revenue, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has mandated that President Bola Tinubu, Vice President, Kashim Shettima, Governors and other dignitaries henceforth pay the required fees at tollgates whenever they use the nation’s airports.
The approval was made days after it was revealed that at least 82 percent of airport tollgate revenue is lost through non-paying Very Important Personalities (VIPs).
The approval was given on Tuesday during a FEC meeting presided over by the president at the Villa in Abuja.
Tinubu, who was said to be furious with this statistics, approved that no one should be exempted from paying toll fees at the airport.
The approval was made following a memorandum presented to the council by the minister of aviation, Festus Keyamo, who promised to get the country’s aviation sector to a standard that puts it’s at par with other nations.
Keyamo lamented that this lost revenue, argued that the government was losing over 82 percent of the revenue it should have earned from the e-tags that provide access to the tollgates.
The minister explained that the memoranda had initially prescribed an exemption for only the president and the vice president before Tinubu overruled and directed that both of them should be included among those that must pay.
Keyamo, who disclosed this at the post-FEC media briefing, regretted that VIPs with money who should pay are those that have not been paying, noting that only poor people had been charged for using the tollgates.
