SAN FRANCISCO, June 03, (THEWILL) – The Senate President, Bukola Saraki has clarified that the upper legislative chamber is not proposing a N5 increment in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, better known as petrol, as part of measures to generate funds for the repair and maintenance of the nation’s roads.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Special Assistant to the Senate President on New Media, Mr. Bankole Omisore, denied reports in some quarters that the National Assembly had such plan.
It recently trended that the Senate Committee on Works on the National Roads Fund Establishment Bill 2017 recommended the imposition of a N5 levy on every litre 0f PMS and Automobile General Oil, popularly called diesel, imported or refined in the country.
The panel also proposed tolling on federal roads and 0.5 per cent of transport fares paid by passengers using mass transit for inter-state trips to generate fund for the rehabilitation and maintenance of road infrastructure in the country.
Earlier today, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, dismissed the move as a joke, wondering how the Senate can “propose such a bill at this particular period when poor Nigerians can hardly feed themselves?”
But Omisore explained that stakeholders were unanimous at the public hearing on the National Roads Fund Bill, on the need to access a percentage of the funds for sustainable maintenance of roads from the pricing template of petroleum products.
He said while the unanimity was on a percentage, opinions varied as to what percentage. “Some argued for 25, 11, 7 and 5 per cent of the value of the price of the product,” the Senate President’s aide explained.
He went on to state that what the upper chamber of the National Assembly adopted was “the minimalist approach to ensure that our roads can come back to life”.
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