The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, has urged the Federal Government to stop the 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax on Automotive Gas Oil, popularly known as diesel.
NARTO said the halt of VAT on diesel had become fundamental in order to avert disruptions in the distribution and supply of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol.
The association said diesel is the product required for fueling about 90 per cent of the haulage trucks that convey PMS from depots located mostly in the South, to various filling stations across the country.
It observed that prior to the introduction of VAT on diesel, the cost of the commodity was barely above N600/litre, but had increased to almost N1,000/litre currently. This, it said, had also raised the cost of transporting PMS by transporters.
On June 20, the Federal Government confirmed that it had commenced the implementation of the payment of 7.5 per cent VAT on diesel.
Commenting on the development in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the National President, NARTO, Yusuf Othman, said despite the high cost of operations in the downstream arm of the oil sector, the government had stopped increasing the pump price of PMS.
He added that since marketers could not raise their pump prices for petrol, it had been impossible for them to increase their costs for the transportation of PMS, and that this had made the cost of doing the business unbearable for transporters.
