Nigerian Government’s proposed 5% fuel tax angers citizens

Recently, the Federal Government announced that Nigerians would start paying five percent tax on every 10 litres of fuel purchased.

Although the take-off date of the policy is uncertain, it did not go down well with Nigerians.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who made the announcement in Abuja last week, clarified that the five percent surcharge was not a new levy, but rather a provision first introduced in 2007 under the Federal Road Maintenance Agency Act.

According to him, the law, which has been in existence since 2007, is for harmonisation and transparency.

“The inclusion of the surcharge in the 2025 Nigeria Tax Administration Act does not mean an automatic introduction of a new tax. It doesn’t mean fresh taxation automatically.

“The five percent surcharge has existed since 2007. Its inclusion in the new law is merely for harmonisation and transparency.

There is no immediate plan to implement any surcharge, and as of today, no commencement order has been issued or is being prepared,” he said.

Expectedly, the proposed tax has been generating reactions among Nigerians, many of whom have expressed anger over the development.

Although the finance minister has assured that no commencement order has been given, probably because of the barrage of attacks trailing the move, Nigerians are still not taking the assurance seriously.

Those pushing this narrative would quickly cite the issue of fuel subsidy removal, which instantly moved the pump price of petrol from N167 per litre to the current price of between N865 and N1000 per litre depending on the part of Nigeria one is buying the product from.

This development, they argued, changed everything in Nigeria for the worse as things kept getting harder and harder by the day without any response from the government to address the people’s economic woes and pains.

However, social media has been abuzz with the issue as netizens continue to debate about the pros and cons of what appears to be one of the government’s most controversial announcements in recent times.