National Roads Fund: Senate contemplates N5 charge on litre of fuel

….Imposes 0.5% charge on fares paid by passengers

Strong indications emerged on Thursday that Nigerians are in for more hardship as the Senate plans to introduce N5 charge on every litre of petrol and diesel products imported into Nigeria and on locally refined petroleum products as revenues for the National Roads Fund.

In order to also fund the National Roads as proposed by the Senate Committee on Works in its report on the bill seeking for the establishment of the fund, 0.5% charges deductible from the fare paid by passengers on inter-state roads is also recommended.

Other proposed sources of revenue for the National Roads Fund as stated in the report on the bill signed by 12 out of the 15 member committee led by Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC Kano South), are Axle load control charges,
International Vehicle Transit Charges, Roads Fund Surcharge of 0.5% chargeable on the assessed value of any vehicle imported at any time into Nigeria, 10% from toll fees on federal roads and 10% of revenue accruing from lease or licence or other fees pertaining to non-vehicular road usages along any federal road collected by federal roads agency.

Though the Senate at Thursday’s sitting did not consider the report as listed on the Order Paper due to want of time but the report is most likely to be considered next week Tuesday being a product of a bill sponsored to that effect by the Senate Committee Chairman on Works, Senator Kabiru Gaya.

Senator Gaya had on October 19, 2016 made a lead debate on the bill by submitting that Roads Fund Solution is the way out for rehabilitation and maintenance of National Roads in Nigeria.

He said: “At the core to the Road Fund Solution is the concept that some of the insufficiency and unpredictability of funding (and by extension, planning), can be mitigated by extracting additional funds from those that use the road assets in the form of a user based charge or levy“.