Fidel Aisodionne (Oil marketer)
My own opinion is that if they are increasing the pump price as a way of raising money, call it fuel tax or whatever, the same government that is trying to raise the idea is paying subsidy on PMS so it appears like a confusing idea. What I will canvass is that government should use the subsidy they pay on PMS to develop roads and other things instead of giving with one hand and taking back with another, I am not too convinced that the idea of fuel tax will go a long way.
However, if introduced, the toll gate is good but the problem is the management of the toll gate, who manages it, is it FERMA or the federal ministry of works or is it going to be their usual style which is to build and give it to private individuals to manage it. From my own experience, private contractors collect the money, but only remit less than one quarter of what they actually collect for the government which is not even enough for ordinary maintenance of the roads.
More importantly government should establish weigh bridges on our roads, maybe the gross weight of what the roads is meant to carry should not be more than 35tonns at a go, but you will discover than today the gross tonnage found on Nigerian roads are between 55 and 67 which is too heavy for the road to carry. So even if you are collecting tolls, what you are collecting is not commensurate to the damage that such high tonnages cause, there should be weigh bridges to weigh vehicles that are coming out of the ports and factories before they access these federal roads, this is what can make the roads last longer and avoid break down of vehicles and also reduce accidents.
Olanife Adeoye (Fuel marketer)
Fuel tax will amount to double taxation because all the oil companies and filling stations at the end of the day have what is called petroleum profit tax, so bringing in this one will amount to double taxation and it will be an added burden on the users of petroleum product if they so do. We are trying to attract investors to the downstream sector of the economy and this idea is going to affect their profit margin and in order to attract investors to this country, the profit margin must be substantial in order for investors to return the money they have collected from the banks, this may discourage investors.
I will half- heartedly agree with you on the issue of toll gates, that is if they will manage the money involved, look at the situation of the roads between Lagos-Ibadan, Benin-Ore road and so on, it is an eye sore because everyday you see tankers colliding and accidents happening all around as a result of the condition of the roads. If the revenue generated from the there will be used to service the roads on time and give us good roads, then it will be better, in the past this idea have made some people billionaires over night because they were just ‘eating’ the money and the roads were depreciating.
Ibirinde Adeolu (Fuel marketer)
Toll collection is good if we borrow a lead from what FAAN did at the airport, the airport road linking the NAHCO axis up to Ikeja used to be a very narrow and rugged road, but FAAN took the bull by the horn by getting a consortium that develop the road, since the toll has been managed, the money raised from it; I believe to a large extent has been used to service whosoever that financed that project, with the way things are going, before the projected period of that road FAAN would have been able to say they have got back their money and even extra more to maintain the road if there is any damage, so if tolls are introduced on federal roads it will generate money to maintain the roads.
Jaycee Maduka (NAGAFF)
This is a masked deregulation. The government used it as plan B when the plan deregulate was in dire contest. Mind you, there has been tax on petroleum from former President Obasanjo’s regime.
If you remember, the breakdown during the increment, N1.50k was for tax.
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