Foreign airlines operating in Nigeria owe the country about 500 million U.S. dollars in unpaid taxes, Nigerian Minister of Aviation Femi Fani-Kayode has said.

"Quite a number of foreign airlines operating in the country are not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). They are not registered because they don't want to pay their taxes. Some of them operate illegal routes," Fani-Kayode said on Monday in Nigerian capital Abuja.

Although he did not give details of the 500 million dollars alleged tax evasion, sources said the loss to foreign airlines operators came mainly from overfly and en route, landing and parking charges, depending on the size of the aircraft operated.

According to Nigerian law, the airlines need to pay value added tax and cargo sales charge to the government.

The law also forbids any foreign company from operating in the country without being registered with CAC.

Source: Xinhua