By Ihechi Enyinnaya
The Federal Government says it has no plans to increase the pump price of petrol as well as taxes.
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President Bola Tinubu has assured that his administration is already taking steps that would curb the increase of fuel prices in the country without having to reverse the nation’s decision to exit the subsidy regime.
This was as the Chairperson, Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, said there were no plans to increase taxes. He said this on Tuesday while reacting to unconfirmed reports of government’s plans to increase taxes
President Tinubu’s assurances were relayed to journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday by his special adviser on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who disclosed that the president is taking steps to clean up inefficiencies within the petroleum industry.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had threatened to embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if the prices of PMS increased above what they currently are.
The threat, therefore, triggered rumours that fuel prices might be increased again.
Reacting to the threat by the organized Labour, the president noted that such a move was premature, urging all stakeholders to be circumspect in reacting to the current situation, even as he appealed for calm from all citizens.
According to Ngelale, “The official position is that there is no increase in prices at this time and that Mr. President is convinced based on the information before him that we can maintain current pricing without reversing our deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream Petroleum sector.”
Speaking further, the presidential spokesman said, “The president wishes, first, to state that it is incumbent upon all stakeholders in the country to hold their peace. We have heard, very recently, from the organized Labour movement in the country with respect to their most recent threat.
“We believe that the threat was premature and that there is a need on all sides to ensure that fact-finding and diligence is done on what the current state of the downstream and midstream petroleum industry is before any threats or conclusions are arrived at or issued.
“Secondly, Mr President wishes to assure Nigerians following the announcement by the NNPC limited just yesterday, that there will be no increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit anywhere in the country. We repeat, the President affirms that there will be no increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit.
“We also wish to affirm that the President is determined to maintain competitive tension within all sub-sectors of the petroleum industry, he is determined to ensure that our policy drawn up, as well as policy implemented, follows the queue that there will not be any single one entity dominating the market. The market has been deregulated. It has been liberalized and we are moving forward in that direction without looking back.
“The President also wishes to affirm that there are presently inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sub-sectors that once very swiftly addressed and cleaned up, will ensure that we can maintain prices where they are without having to resort to a reversal of this administration’s deregulation policy in the petroleum industry.”
He went further to provide insight into the performance of the decision to remove the subsidy on PMS by the president on the assumption of office in May, noting that the besides the fact that the consumption rate dropped from 67 million litres per day to 46 million, adding that comparatively, the petrol pump price is cheapest in Nigeria in the West African sub-region by huge differences.
Meanwhile, Oyedele revealed that what government proposed was to reduce the country’s over 60 official taxes down to a single digit tax number.
According to him, the plan is to be able to reduce the number to single digit so that across all levels of government, you do not pay more than 10 taxes.
“We are confident that this is possible with the support of everyone and we will continue to do what we can to close the tax gap to generate revenue instead of increasing taxes.
“We have the inaugural meeting of the committee and workshop next week Tuesday and more information will be provided to the public afterwards,” he said.