FG releases N600 billion NNPC tax credit for road construction

From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

The Federal Government has released the sum of N600 billion which is the tax credit from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the construction of 21 roads across the country.

Speaking before handing over the cheque to the contractors, Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said that the use of the NNPC’s credit was in accordance with the Executive Order OO7 to use NNPC’s tax credit to construct roads.

According to the minister, the government resolved to use the tax credit to augment the budgetary allocation that is highly insufficient.

This, he, said would bridge the critical infrastructure gap facing the country.

‘This was an Order we inherited and we looked at it and found it necessary. When the Order expired we made representation to the president and in 2019, the president renewed the Order.

‘One of the things we have done is to ask the contractors not to increase the price. We have put in a governance process to ensure speedy completion of projects,’ he said, adding that while the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) needs five days to verify the contractors’ certificates, NNPC would have not more than 30 days to pay.

The minister used the occasion to peg the maximum speed limit on the new road at 100 kilometres per hour.

He observed that the rate of accidents as a result of speeding on the roads is unbearable.

The idea of 100 kilometres per hour, he said, is to enable motorists to control their vehicles in the event of an accident. To this end, he equally advised motorists to avoid phone calls on the highway to reduce the number of road crashes.

In his remarks, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Meke Kolo Kyari, who was represented by Umar Anjiya, observed that the deplorable condition of the roads in the country is affecting the economic growth of the country.

He acknowledged that the spilling of petroleum products on the roads is one of the causes of road damage, a situation that moved NNPC to support the construction of the roads.