By Musa Abdullahi Krishi

Nigerians may pay additional N5 on petroleum price if the current National Roads Fund bill before the House of Representatives is passed into law.

The N5 increase is part of recommendations of a technical committee set up by the House Committee on Works, chaired by Rep Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu).

The technical committee, chaired by Chris Okoye, was in November given the task of drawing a report to be reviewed and considered by the House.

The National Road Fund, when established, is to serve as a repository of revenues from road user-related charges and other sources for financing to be managed and administered for routine and periodic maintenance works on Nigerian roads.

Thus, as part of the sources for the fund, the committee recommended that “fuel levy of N5 chargeable per litre on any volume of petrol and diesel products imported into Nigeria and on locally refined petroleum products.”

Other sources the committee recommended include, toll fees not exceeding 10 percent of any revenue paid as user charge per vehicle on any federal road designated as a toll road; international vehicle transit charges; inter-state mass transit user charge of 0.5 percent deductible from the fare paid by passengers as well as surcharge of 0.5 percent chargeable on the assessed value of any imported vehicle into the country.

The other sources of funding as recommended by the committee are lease, license or other fees which should be 10 percent of the revenue accruing from such or other fees pertaining to non-vehicular road usages along any federal road; grants and loans and gifts of land, money or other property.

The fund is to be managed by a governing board with a managing director as the head of the fund.

However, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) opposed the recommendation on the N5 fuel levy. The institute, which was part of the technical committee, submitted a minority report to the House works committee.

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