Marketers seek implementation of presidential directive on cooking gas

Chairman of Gas Nigerian Initiative (GNI) Opeyemi Olabanji has decried yet-to-be-implemented presidential directive on imported gas and other products
He therefore urged the Federal Government to expedite action on prompt implementation of the directive slamming zero duties on some imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other specified gas accessories.

In a letter dated November 28, 2023 from the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Government approved a-100 per cent tax waiver for the LPG importation amid the rising cost of the product in the domestic market.
Other items exempted from Value Added Tax (VAT) and duty payment are LPG cylinders, cascades, gas leak detectors, steel pipes, valves and fittings, dispensers, gas generators and trucks.

Olabanji said the relevant agencies responsible for the implementation of the policies are allegedly lethargic with it.

The National President of Nigeria Association of LPG Marketers, Oladapo Olatunbosun, has also called for the implementation of the presidential directive as relayed on November, 2023.
The GNI leader recounted on how he had late last year in another press conference at the same venue urged the Nigerian Custom Services (NCS) to fast-track the implementation of the directive.

He added that the Spokesperson of the NCS, Abdullahi Maiwada, in his reaction had said it was not a case of the agency refusing to carry out the president’s directive, but said certain preconditions had to be met before the implementation.

Olatunbosun, quoting copiously Maiwada, recalled 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 precondition for the implementation saying “it is not an open-ended thing; there is a caveat to the letter which 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 demiurge cost of keeping the imported cylinders at the nation’s sea ports, the GNI boss said all efforts aimed at extracting the implementation of the directive by his association had been futile.
He said: “We painstakingly took our letter to the Special Adviser on Energy at the seat of power at Aso Rock 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 into great and massive investments in the importation of the 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 and economic growth. President Bola Tinubu should kindly call to order anyone causing a delay in the implementation of his order.”