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Airport Company begins registration of businesses

Airport Company begins registration of businesses

The Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) is registrating businesses and individuals operating at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra as part of efforts aimed at creating a database of entities with commercial interest at the airport.

The exercise has, however, stirred controversy among the affected businesses, with some viewing it as a revenue generation measure that will have dire consequences on their cost of operations.

Per the initiative, which took off this year, all airlines and other up market entities at the airport are to pay an annual fee of GH¢10,000 to be able to obtain a business registration certificate from the Airport Company.

However, those below such as food and beverage companies and commercial vehicle operators would pay from GH¢200 and above to obtain the certificate. 

The certificate is valid for the next 12 months and is subject to renewal once the entity concerned has met the requirements necessary for a new one, the Acting Director of Commercial Services at the GACL, Mr S. Kofi Yeboah, told the paper on January 16.

“The exercise is to give credibility to the people and institutions working here. In a broader sense, it will rather benefit them,” Mr Yeboah said, stressing that it was not a revenue generation measure aimed at raising funds to meet operational costs.

“It is not the money that we are interested in. This is not where we make our money from. The airport has ways it raises its own money and this is not one of them; this is just a security measure,” he added. 

Subtle disagreement

Mr Yeboah’s comments were in reaction to the subtle disagreement from the affected businesses, most of whom explained that the GACL, which has responsibility over the management of the country’s airports, was covertly using the registration process to raise revenue to offset its costs.

Some of the affected institutions referred to the payment as user fee with others calling it royalty tax from the company for the usage of land and other facilities at the airport.

“Already, the margins are low and the Airport Company is aware of that. Now, if you expect us to pay GH¢10,000 in a year, then you are just raising our cost of operation which we cannot pass on to customers because of the implication on demand,” one of the affected institutions told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on condition of anonymity.

Although some of the companies had teamed up against the implementation of the exercise, checks by the paper showed that a lot of them have already paid the fee, thereby rendering the proposed opposition needless.

“We met and took a decision on it but upon a second thought, we realised that it was a necessary evil and we cannot fight it,” the head of one of the institutions told the paper.

“The thing is, with what they were saying, if you do not pay, they will not renew your security pass and without that pass, you cannot do anything at the airport. The truth is nobody is happy paying money but when the reason for paying is reasonable, then you will just have to abide by it,” another source said.

Expected amount

Although the director of commercial services at the GACL declined commenting on the amount the company expects to raise from the exercise, Graphic Business calculations showed that the company could earn about GH¢300,000 from the airlines alone.

There are currently about 30 airlines at the airport, of which 20 do international air services, seven run cargo, while three operate domestic services across the various regional airports.

The amount will add to similar payments from allied service providers such as freight forwarders (about 14 of which are currently operating at the KIA), banking and insurance companies, cargo handling companies and aviation security providers.

Conservatively, therefore, the company could make about GH¢100,000 from the exercise at KIA, which it intends replicating in the regional airports by 2016.

“The money is not the focus. It is the database that we want to create for security and planning exercise. See, when we started, we were amazed to see the number of things that are coming out which we earlier on did not know and that will help us a lot,” he said, dismissing the commercial aspect of the venture.

“Airport infrastructure establishment is very expensive and so we do not embark on an exercise like this without recovering some cost. That is why we asked those operating here to pay some small money to help us to recover cost. It is not a revenue thing,” Mr Yeboah added.

Going forward, he said the exercise would be replicated in the various regional airports, hopefully by next year, to help create uniformity and comprehensiveness in the data the company seeks to build.  

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