Fuel Prices: Where Are the Palliative Measures?

NIGERIA – President Olusegun Obasanjo promised that in the year 2006 Nigerians will enjoy a stable price regime for petroleum products, not higher than the current prices. This is to say that there will be no upward price adjustments this year. This is a very welcome development and Nigerians fervently hope this promise will remain heeded.

But the problem does not just lie in prices above the current regime. We recall that there were droves of protests registering that Nigerians could not pay, for instance, N65 per litre of petrol. And we lost our most dear Chima Ubani and others in martyrdom, to this noble cause for which they will remain heroes in the inner beings of all Nigerians of goodwill.

The Federal Government had, through the Ibrahim Mantu Committee on palliative measures to cushion the effects of the price hikes, put in place some fiscal measures to contain the natural inflationary tendencies usually associated with such price movements.

According to the committee, such measures included the reduction of duties on buses from 22 per cent to 10 per cent; reduction of duties on pharmaceutical drugs from 20 per cent to 5 per cent, the payment of 3 per cent interest on loan by transporters and owners among others.

Daily Champion (Lagos)