IPMAN kicks as FG charges VAT on outstanding petrol tickets

The Suleja branch of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has kicked against the charge of Value Added Tax (VAT) on the outstanding tickets its members paid for the purchase of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) after the removal of subsidy.

This was contained in a press statement its Chairman, Yahaya Alhassan, issued to reporters in Abuja at the weekend.

The chairman expressed surprise that the federal government did not understand the affected tickets were not new payments made for purchase of petrol after the phasing out of subsidy.

He said the association had been asking the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to release the outstanding fuel they paid for before the removal of subsidy.

He noted that IPMAN was further taken aback when it realised VAT had been included in the outstanding tickets as if they were fresh transactions.

Yahaya said, “For the outstanding tickets, up till now they have not attended to us. What they (NNPCL) are even saying now is that they (marketers) should put VAT for the tickets.

“This was the money we paid before subsidy was removed. We got this information after Sallah, which is this week.”

While noting that the recourse they had was to write and explain to President Bola Tinubu to help them out of the confusion which had held down their business, he said, “We have to explain to the president; that is the only way we can solve that problem.”

IPMAN noted that the federal government seemed to be mistaking the outstanding bridging claims that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had been owing for tickets NNPCL was owing marketers for old petrol tickets.

When there was subsidy, the government, through the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), was paying the marketers the transportation component in the PMS pricing template.

That payment being the bridging cost for transporting the fuel to attain a uniform pump price nationwide automatically ceased to exist with the removal of subsidy.

The Suleja IPMAN chairman further said, “I want the federal government to know that bridging claim is different from subsidy. We are supporting the removal of subsidy. IPMAN members are not among those who benefited from subsidy.

“The bridging claim is our own money. Any money that any marketer pays, the transport money is there, which we are contributing.”

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