Accra, April 26, GNA - Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) would by the end of this month start an aggressive collection of taxes owed it by defaulting airlines operating at the Kotoka International Airport.

The taxes, which run into millions of dollars, include the airport and passenger handling charges as well as air navigational charges accrued to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and the Authority. A senior official of GCAA told journalists that the authority has written to the defaulting airlines and notified them of their indebtedness and possible sanctions if they failed to honour their tax obligation by the said date.

"The IRS is on our necks to collect the part of the revenues and such undue delays do not augur well for the timely implementation of government economic projections and the development of the airport." Although the source would not mention the names of the defaulting airlines GNA gathered that some major and small airlines operating regular schedules to Accra are guilty of the offence.

The source said the taxes, which were incorporated in the airline tickets, were expected to be refunded to the Authority, which should be paid to IRS but in most cases there was an undue delay in refunding the monies to the Authority.

On airlines that used Ghana's air space, the source said GCAA had sent its officials to the headquarters of these airlines to demand payment of their areas.

Last Friday a Boeing 747 aircraft belonging to Belview Airlines, which was on a schedule flight from Lagos to Liberia was not allowed to take off for about five hours by GCAA for not paying for its navigational and airport services.

The airline was, however, allowed to take off upon negotiation and a pledge to honour its debt but GNA investigations have revealed that Belview Airlines are yet to pay up.