The National President of the Nigeria Association of LPG Marketers, Oladapo Olatunbosun, criticized the Nigeria Customs Service for its alleged reluctance to enforce the presidential directive on zero import duties for gas items, including imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
Expressing dissatisfaction, the national president pointed out that despite the circular from the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Mr Wale Edun, instructing the relevant agencies to comply with the directive, the Nigeria Customs Service has not yet fully embraced the implementation.
Olatunbosun disclosed this concern during a conversation with reporters. He highlighted that many of their members with imported items currently held at the ports are incurring demurrage costs.
These additional expenses, he emphasized, would eventually be passed on to end-users, leading to higher costs for consumers of LPG. This outcome, he noted, would defeat the intended purpose of reducing prices.
He said,
- “It is unfortunate that some people and agencies, particularly Nigeria Customs Service have refused to implement the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on waiver of import duty on gas items as well as imported gas among others.”
- “These are beautiful measures taken by the President to expand the utilization of gas and bring the price of gas down significantly.”
- “We receive this cheering news with a lot of excitement, but our excitement is being dampened now with the reluctance of the appropriate agency to implement this directive, particularly the Nigeria Customs Service.”
- “Many of our members have their items in the ports now that are incurring demurrage daily because the Customs will refuse to carry out the President’s directive. This is our major problem in this country, many times our leaders will mean very well for the people but those who are to implement the government order will rather choose to do what they like”.
Reaction from the Nigeria Customs Service
Reacting to the allegation, the National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Abdullahi Maiwada explained that the Customs service did not disobey the President’s directive rather it forwarded the circular from the finance minister to all its state commands.
He noted that the circular came with a caveat which stated that items to enjoy the waiver must be accompanied by an approval letter from the President’s Special Adviser on Energy.
He stated,
- “However, 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”
- In November, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun had in a letter directed the Nigeria Customs Service to exempt cooking gas (LPG) and other related items from Value-Added-Tax (VAT) and import duties in a bid to control the rising prices of LPG.
