Taiwo Oyedele has stated that Tinubu government did not introduce 5% fuel surcharge.
NaijaOnPoint Nigeria reports that the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has clarified that the 5% fuel surcharge circulating in recent reports was not introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, Oyedele explained that the surcharge was first enacted in 2007 but was never implemented due to ongoing fuel subsidies.
“One very important message for people to know is that this surcharge was not introduced by this government. It was introduced in 2007,” Oyedele said. “And then it was not implemented because the government was subsidising fuel.”
Amid recent public concerns about the surcharge, which would impose a 5% fee on every litre of fuel purchased, Oyedele clarified that it was not part of the original tax bills signed into law earlier this year.
“While we were doing this tax reform, it was not even in the original proposal, so it was not like the President proposed it to the National Assembly. In the process of working on the bills, these issues came up, and the decision was made that we should not have different agencies collecting taxes,” he said.
The surcharge, as outlined in the 2007 law, mandates the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to collect it, with 40% allocated to federal roads and 60% to state governments. Oyedele emphasized that there is no plan to implement the surcharge in January, contrary to circulating rumors.
Civil society organisations and trade unions had voiced strong opposition to the proposed fee, with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) threatening industrial action and the Organised Private Sector rejecting it outright.
Oyedele, however, defended the surcharge as a measure to maintain Nigeria’s road infrastructure, stressing that it would ultimately benefit the public.