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Era of VAT charges on LPG almost gone, says PPMC

By Tayo Oredola
15 August 2018   |   3:22 am
In line with the Federal Government’s aspirations to increase local consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the country, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed plans by the government to remove the existing value added tax (VAT) on LPG sourced locally. The company’s Executive Director,…

LPG

In line with the Federal Government’s aspirations to increase local consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the country, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed plans by the government to remove the existing value added tax (VAT) on LPG sourced locally.

The company’s Executive Director, Commercials, Billy Okoye who revealed this in Lagos during the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers (NALPGAM) tagged ‘Lagos 2018’, noted that talks were ongoing with Nigeria LNG (NLNG), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the NNPC on the challenges faced by marketers concerning VAT on Nigeria LPG as against the imported one, adding that it would soon be stopped.

According to him, as a subsidiary of the NNPC, the company is not only at the fore front of ensuring the steady supply of LPG, but also to stabilise the domestic price of the product in spite of the general increase in price of petroleum products worldwide.

Okoye who said he did not want to be the one to announce the news on the removal of VAT on LPG in Nigeria, added that there were ongoing dialogues with NLNG as well as importers to see to the stabilisation in prices because “it’s a major way of encouraging people to divert to the usage of LPG popularly known as cooking gas.”

The President of NALPGAM, Nosa Ogieva-Okunbor, stated that within the week the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, set up an inter ministerial committee to look into some of the challenges faced by the sector and it included the issue of the VAT charges on locally sourced gas from Bonny.

The NALPGAM boss explained that owing to Federal Government’s concession on imported gas, importers do not pay VAT as compared to what is obtainable when purchasing locally produced gas.

This he said has affected the buying cost of gas locally, hence the appeal for the removal of the VAT on the product in-country.

The current move by the minister, he said, was an evidence that their advocacy had yielded results.

The association which flagged off a campaign tagged ‘Creating Awareness and Safe Handling of LPG’ distributed about 500 five kilogramme gas cylinders at the AGM and maintained that the campaign would be taken to all states of the federation going forward.

The project, Ogieva-Okunbor noted, was veered at reaching the association’s target of hitting one million metric tonnes yearly on or before 2020.

“If every stakeholder key into what we are doing now, by 2025 we would be hitting five million metric tonnes then Nigeria would be ranked among high level committee of LPG consuming nations,” he remarked.

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