By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government is considering the reintroduction of the abolished N1.50 per litre levy on petroleum products.
This hint was dropped by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr Hameed Ibrahim Ali, when he appeared before the Senate Committee for Customs, Excise and Tariff chaired by Mr Francis Alimikhena, to defend the 2021 budget of the agency.
According to him, the Customs has given the federal government a nod on the plan, arguing that the reintroduction is in accordance with the Petroleum Product Tax Regime of 2004 to enable it to expand the revenue source of the government.
Mr Ali disclosed that the agency targets revenue of N1.465 trillion into the Federation account this year.
Giving a breakdown, he said the total amount of N1.465 trillion which consists of N1.267 trillion for federation and N198.00 billion for non-federation.
According to him, when compared with the 2020 revenue target, the 2021 revenue target is higher by N85 billion or 5.8 per cent, just as he said that the service has proposed a budget expenditure of N242.45 billion for the 2021 fiscal year.
He explained that this would be sourced from 7 per cent of the cost of collection for 2021 which is N96.94 billion; 60 per cent CISS, put at N47.01 billion; 2 per cent of Value Added Tax (VAT) share of NCS which is N7.40 billion; outstanding liabilities of N91.10 billion, totally, N242.45 billion.
As Nigeria expects the passage of the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the prevailing law governing the taxation of petroleum products are the Petroleum Profits Tax Act (PPTA) Cap P13 LFN 2004 and the Petroleum Profits Tax Act, 2007 which emerged after the amendments of the Petroleum Profits Tax Act, Cap P13 LFN 2004 via the Petroleum Profits Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2005.