Lai Mohammed
Government ready to talk to all aggrieved groups
Tobi Soniyi in Abuja.
Nigeria is in dire straits and lacks
enough funds to meet its obligations, the Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said wednesday.
The minister stated this in Abuja while
explaining the decision of the federal government to increase the pump
price of fuel, adding that the policy was not aimed at removing subsidy
but to free funds to help the government meet its other financial
obligations.
“The current problem is not really about subsidy removal. It is about that Nigeria is broke. Pure and simple!” Mohammed said.
The minister, who briefed State House
correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting
presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, called on Nigerians to
bear with the government.
With him at the briefing were the
Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde
Fashola (SAN); and Labour and Productivity Minister, Dr Chris Ngige.
He said Nigeria was “like somebody who
has been earning N100,000 a month and he is faced with a situation where
his employer says henceforth you will be earning N10,000 a month”.
“He would need to make some very painful
decisions and some very painful adjustments. That is the situation with
Nigeria today. A few months ago, we were earning as much as $100 for
every barrel of crude. In the months of February and March, we were
short, we no longer have the resources, the foreign exchange to bring in
refined fuel products. And our economy is shrinking.
“We appreciate the fact that the
decision is going to affect everybody. We appreciate what we are going
through, but Nigerians should also know that the government has the
responsibility at times to take very difficult decisions. So, it is not
always about popularity,” Mohammed said.
Also speaking, Ngige said government was ready to discuss with all groups aggrieved by the new fuel price regime.
When asked why government was selective
in its talks with labour groups, he replied: “We are trying to bring
them under one roof on an issue that concerns all Nigerians. We wanted
to speak to the sensitive sectors of the economy. That is why we brought
them together.”
Ngige said that government had agreed to
meet some of the demands by labour, one of which was the
re-constitution of the board of the Petroleum Products Pricing
Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
He said that a 15-man committee had been set up by government to look into the demands of labour.
Ngige also said that the PPPRA board would be constituted in the next two weeks.
Fashola said government was encouraging
industrialists to invest in infrastructure and would in return be
considered for tax breaks.
In line with this policy, the minister
said that a construction firm owned by Dangote Group had agreed to
construct the Obajana-Kabba Road in Kogi State.
He said: “We presented a memo to council
for consideration. The memo seeks to take benefits of the existing
policy and regulation. It seeks to take benefits of tax policies, tax
laws for the purpose of using them to drive infrastructure development
renewal.
“So we presented a proposal by one of
the subsidiary of Dangote group, a construction company, for the
construction of a section of Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba-Ilorin, specifically
the section between Obajana-Kabba road using cement as demonstrative of
how perhaps we should continue to build going forward in order to reduce
maintenance on the road and the company proposing to fund the
construction of that section of the road in exchange for some tax
remissions.”
Fashola pointed out that ordinarily,
companies ought to pay income tax, adding that “there are existing
policies in our laws, which enable government to consider and give tax
incentives”.
According to him, “Council considered
and approved the proposal for Dangote Construction Company to build that
section of the road because the tonnage of cement being produced from
the factory has increased, and the traffic in that area has increased,
there has been unfortunate accidents also.
“It is a total economic policy, which
council considered and approved because it gives support to industry, it
enables us to take benefit of our tax law to renew infrastructure at a
time where we are really challenged for resources to finance all our
routes.
“It also enables us to save lives by
quickly and urgently rebuilding that road so that other commuters who
also depend on that road for their livelihood would also benefit from
the road.”
The minister said that the policy was
not just about Dangote but “an existing tax policy that a corporate or
individual that makes investment on the infrastructure of a public
nature should be entitled to make claims for remission on its income tax
obligation”.
According to him, even as an
individual, anyone is entitled to make this claim if the infrastructure
goes through this type of process and is approved by government.
Fashola said: “So the details are that
about 30 per cent income tax obligation spread over time. It doesn’t
mean they won’t pay tax. They will continue to pay their tax obligation
but they will get remission for making this investment because
ultimately the road doesn’t belong to them but to government and it is
for the benefits of Nigerians. So it is like credit advance to
government.”
The Malami said FEC approved his memo on
ensuring uniformity in payment and settlement processes in the
financial system in order to block leakages in ministries, departments
and agencies (MDAs).
In this regard, he said his ministry would prepare a draft bill and forward it to the National Assembly to make it a law.
He also said he gave a report on the
recent UN Habitat Conference in Abuja that was attended by ministers of
environment from across Africa.
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