If the National Roads Fund Establishment Bill 2017, proposed by the Senate gets presidential accent, the Federal Government would be generating about N73 billion yearly, Daily Sun analysis has shown.
Under the bill, the Senate is proposing a levy of N5 on every litre of petrol and diesel imported or refined in the country for the same purpose.
The Bill is equally proposing the return of tolls on federal roads and the setting aside of 0.5 per cent of transport fares paid by mass transit passengers for inter-state trips to generate funds for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads in the country.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) statistics on petrol, the country consumes about 40 million litres of petrol daily.
This shows that 40 million litres of petrol multiplied by N5 amounts to N200 million daily revenue for the country. When this figure is multiplied by 31 days, it would amount to N6.2 billion, leaving the country with the sum of N73 billion yearly.
The Senate Committee on Works had, last week Thursday, listed the objectives of the bill to include the establishment of the National Roads Fund “to be a repository of revenues from road user related charges and other sources for financing, which shall be managed and administered for routine and periodic maintenance works on roads in Nigeria.”
But the bill may have met stiff resistance from labour unions with the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) criticising the proposed N5 petrol levy by the Senate, describing it as a huge joke.
The South-West Chairman of NUPENG, Mr. Tokunbo Korodo, said in Lagos at the weekend that the proposal was ill-timed and also smacked of insensitivity to the current economic hardships facing Nigerians. (The Sun)
