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The Federal Government has been encouraged by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) to persuade Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) to immediately cease the unlawful fee imposed on its members.
Yakubu Suleiman, the IPMAN National Public Relations Officer (PRO), stated at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja that the call came after the association’s Central Working Committee (CWC) met.
According to Suleiman, it is now crucial for Nigerians, in particular the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), to identify individuals allegedly undermining the country’s efforts to distribute Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS).
Suleiman said that by charging IPMAN members N23,000 for each vehicle loaded at the depot, the PTD reportedly committed an act of sabotage on the PMS distribution.
He referred to the tax as “extortion” and urged President Bola Tinubu and the NNPCL to summon the tanker driver to court.
According to the IPMAN PRO, the tanker drivers’ levies on their members further reduced the little earnings that was left for them to maintain their gasoline distribution company.
According to him, it used to cost them around seven million naira to load and deliver a truck load of PMS to one of their many petrol stations, but once the subsidy was removed, the price rose to over 23 million naira.
He consequently asked PTD to avoid the fee because IPMAN members had been told to cease paying it.
According to the IPMAN PRO, if the taxation or extortion continued, they would be forced to take serious measures to defend their members.
“If nothing is done, we will call our members to stop loading and we have given a time frame to watch development before we carry out our action.
“We urge them to call PTD to order to henceforth stop collecting these levies from our members. Trucks belong to us and drivers work for us then why are we being surcharged for providing food for the family?
“The constitution of PTD allows them to collect only N300 from their members, not outside and not from IPMAN. We support PIA.
“As IPMAN, we levy only our members; we don’t levy other organisations or associations, which is what our constitution says, but to our chagrin, tanker drivers left their territory and started further levying of IPMAN members.
“At the moment we are working on ensuring that more importers join the NNPCL to bring in PMS. And we hope that the price will soon begin to come down since the market forces determine the price.
“We assure President Bola Tinubu and NNPCL that IPMAN as an association, is in full support of deregulation and we will continue to ensure that the supply and distribution of petroleum products succeed in the country.
Source: Allnews Nigeria
