The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has called on the Federal Government to immediately remove the 7.5per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on the Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), also known as diesel, to avoid throwing Nigerians into a fresh round of petrol scarcity saying.
The group said the current cost was totally unbearable and making it increasingly difficult to ensure hitch-free distribution and supply of petrol.
NARTO National President, Alhaji Yusuf Lawal Othman, who made the appeal in a statement on Tuesday, explained that diesel is the product that powers about 90% of the haulage trucks which distribute petrol and other products nationwide.
According to him, prior to the introduction of VAT on diesel, the product was sold for N600/litre on average but now hovers around N1,000/litre, which has also increased the cost of transporting petrol. He also fingered terrible roads, high cost of dollars, trucks, spare parts and batteries as other factors peppering them and threatening to crumble their operations if nothing is done to quickly avert it. Othman added that despite the high operation cost, the government has stopped further increases in the pump price of PMS, thus suffocating them.
