The Chairman of the Gas Nigerian Initiative (GNI), Engineer Opeyemi Olabanji, has urged the Federal Government to expedite action on the implementation of its recent directive placing zero duties on some imported LPG and other specified gas accessories.
Recall that in a letter dated November 28, 2023, from the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Government approved a 100 per cent tax waiver for LPG importation amid the rising cost of the product in the domestic market.
Other items exempt from VAT and duty payment are LPG cylinders, cascades, gas leak detectors, steel pipes, valves, and fittings, dispensers, gas generators, and trucks.
Speaking with journalists on Thursday, the GNI president said the relevant agencies responsible for the implementation of the policies are allegedly lethargic about it.
The development also came on the heels of another appeal by the National President of the Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers, Oladapo Olatunbosun, canvassing for the prompt implementation of the presidential directive as relayed in November 2023.
The GNI leader recounted how, late last year, in another press conference, he urged the Nigerian Customs Services (NCS) to fast-track the implementation of the directive.
He added that the National Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Abdullahi Maiwada, in his reaction, said that it was not a case of the agency refusing to carry out the President’s directive but that certain preconditions had to be met before the implementation.
Olatunbosun, quoting Maiwada copiously, disclosed how the NCS spokesman had allegedly confirmed the receipt of the letter on the directive from the Federal Minister of Finance on December 12, 2023, and that by December 15, the same year, it promptly dispatched circulars to the states’ commands to get the directive implemented.
Maiwada had given a caveat for the implementation, noting that “it is not an open-ended thing; there is a caveat to the letter that says that items to enjoy this waiver must be supported with an approval letter from the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Energy. Once this document is presented, the customs will get the job done.”.
Lamenting the daily demurrage cost of keeping the imported cylinders at the nation’s seaport, the GNI boss said all efforts aimed at extracting the implementation of the directive by his association had been futile.
According to him, “We painstakingly took our letter to the Special Adviser on Energy at the seat of power at Aso Rock a few days ago without any corresponding response, thus prompting this press conference.
“As business-oriented people, we could not but rely on the presidential directive on the tax waiver thing. This prompted us to make great and massive investments in the importation of LPGs and other accessories.
“As we address you right now, we incur daily demiurge on them at the port. This is not good for business or economic growth. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should kindly call on anyone causing a delay in the implementation of his order.”
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