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The recent report that the National Assembly is tinkering with the idea of introducing a fuel levy of five naira on every litre of fuel or diesel bought in any fuel station in the country is generating ripples in the polity, with many Nigerians calling on the federal legislature to perish the idea.
The plan for the levy is contained in the proposed National Road Fund Establishment Bill 2017, which was approved by the Senate Committee on Works, and placed before the Senate for passage last week. The House of Representatives has also reportedly endorsed the bill. The proposed law is part of the eleven economic reform bills initiated by the Senate.
The bill provides for a levy of five naira on every litre of petrol and diesel sold in the country, whether imported or refined. It equally proposed the return of tolls on all federal roads and the setting aside of 0.5 percent of transport fares paid by mass transit passengers for inter-state trips to generate funds for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads in the country. However, roads built under Private Public Partnership (PPP) policy are excluded from the tolls. Already the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and some civil society groups have vowed to oppose the bill. They argued that the bill, if allowed to become law, will worsen the current economic hardship Nigerians are passing through.
However, Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has stoutly denied that the bill will lead to an increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol. He explained that the report of the committee which worked on the bill has different suggestions on how to generate funds for maintenance of the nation’s road network.
He further stressed that there was a consensus on the desirability of the Fund and the need to ensure that the money to be generated for it from the sale of fuel should be accommodated within the current fuel price template, without increasing the current pump price of the product.
The Senate President also assured Nigerians that although the Senate has not debated the recommendations, the committee’s report clearly stated that the five naira will come from the restructuring of the existing pricing template, which will entail a reshuffling of the taxes in the current N145 fuel pump price.
In other words, five naira out of the existing taxes will be set aside to develop existing roads and build new ones across the country. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has also affirmed that there are no plans whatsoever to increase the pump price of petrol from the current N145 per litre.
The Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Abdukadir Saidu, explained that the agency had to make the clarification following the growing speculations on a purported imminent five naira increase in the price of petrol.
We welcome the idea of a road maintenance fund. Most advanced countries of the world map certain percentages of their revenues for that purpose. Funds for this task are sourced through various forms of road taxes. Based on this fact, the bid to set aside five naira from the price of each litre of fuel sold in the country for road maintenance is well thought out.
But in doing so, the Senate must ensure that it does in any way lead to an increase in the price of petroleum products in the country. We say this because of the backlash such a policy will have on the economy. It will be unfair to ask already beleaguered Nigerians to cough out an additional five naira for a litre of petrol and diesel. This will further compound the people’s economic woes as it will lead to increases in the prices of many goods and services in the country.
We want to believe, as Saraki has assured the nation, that the initiative will not lead to a fuel price hike. We appreciate the bad shape of our roads and the need for proper funding of their maintenance and construction of new ones. But, the solution to this problem should not be an increase in fuel price. Such will have deleterious effects on our economy which is struggling to exit recession.
Any attempt to increase fuel price under whatever guise will trigger off a chain of reactions that will not augur well for the nation and the people. We strongly object to a fuel price hike and any other measure that can increase the misery of Nigerians.
