FERMA’s road tax

Even though we have the capacity to design and build some of the finest public facilities and structures in Africa we allow them to suffer avoidable wear and tear without concrete plans to keep them consistently in good shape. This is why the government replaces brand new cars after only three years! It’s therefore hardly […]

Even though we have the capacity to design and build some of the finest public facilities and structures in Africa we allow them to suffer avoidable wear and tear without concrete plans to keep them consistently in good shape. This is why the government replaces brand new cars after only three years! It’s therefore hardly surprising to hear that the nation has no policy of planned road maintenance.
The Federal Ministry of Works continues to make budgetary provisions for annual procurement of furniture and vehicles without including funding for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the buildings where they are warehoused or for the roads on which they are driven. The recent announcement that we will soon be burdened with a 5% petrol tax to be used for road maintenance is just another illustration of the monumental arrogance and unaccountability associated with federal government. No indication has been given as to how much is expected to accrue from this tax and what it would be applied to. Government apparently feels they owe no explanation and the long suffering public should pay for their corruption and past failures.
The House of Representatives’ Public Accounts Committee recently said that former works ministers, Chief Anthony Anenih and Chief Ganiyu Ogunlewe had questions to answer regarding the application of funds during their tenures in office. Incredibly, the same government that has failed to do anything to halt corruption and misapplication of funds now intends to penalize the general public for the detrimental acts of political appointees. Nobody has been brought to book for the massive sums that went unaccounted for prior to the 2003 elections purportedly spent on road rehabilitation, and once again as elections draw near Nigerians are being asked to fund another “road rehabilitation programme” from which no account will be rendered. The only difference is that this time this it is in the form of a tax. The taxes and levies (approved list for collection) Decree of 1998 outlines taxes to be collected by federal, state, and local governments and it makes it quite clear that road taxes are not the responsibility of federal government but of State Governments. The idea of taxing fuel for road maintenance is a silly and simplistic response which cannot solve the problem and ignores the reality of present day life in the country.
A recent survey claims that up to 15% of fuel being purchased in Nigeria is used to run generators, speed boat engines and assorted petrol pumps. It would be patently unfair to expect these people to be taxed for road maintenance. Anyone who has managed to buy a car will agree that that the numerous payments made to government are burdensome taxes. First there is the matter of import duty, vehicle registration, number plate and vehicle license. When through with this the vehicle owner will be expected to obtain a certificate of road worthiness without any VIO actually checking to see that the vehicle is roadworthy as well as the police CMR or ECMR paper. Every one of these processes can be considered to be a tax as they involve payments well in excess of costs to government. For example vehicle license and driving license documents which can be printed for less than a hundred naira each is sold to the public for thousands. With all these amounts accruing to government it’s hard to understand why none of the money is specifically dedicated to road maintenance. In organized climes this is not so. For example in the UK the disc displayed on a vehicle windscreen is called “road tax” and all the money accruing to government from sales of the disc is dedicated to maintaining the roads.
The idea of introducing another tax rather than applying the funds realized by sales of vehicle licenses to repair roads is absurd to say the least. By law there are only five types of taxes payable by Nigerians which are Value Added Tax paid when goods or services are purchased, Capital Gains Tax paid a property/ product is sold for a profit, Education Tax paid by all companies for education development, personal income tax paid on earned salary, and Company or Corporate Tax paid on a company’s annual profit. We don’t need to pay more taxes what is required is to reduce corruption and spend our money more judiciously. The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) don’t do any preventative resurfacing of motorable roads and have been reduced to low quality patching of roads rather than the expert repairing that is required. To add insult to injury they now want to tax the public to pay for their substandard and inadequate repairs which continue to fail.
Anyone travelling the Abuja – Benin road frequently will be aware of portions that are permanently being patched by FERMA. Road maintenance is far more than patching failed portions. The ministry of works has to develop a policy for the constant resurfacing of roads but unfortunately they give their attention to massive public works at the expense of planning road transport and providing transport facilities. If at all funds are required for maintaining federal roads then they should come only from those who own cars and use federal roads.
Well known for its policy somersaults the PDP government should re-introduce toll gates to be operated by FERMA as the best solution. The myopic, stupid, costly and ill-considered destruction of toll gates by the Obasanjo administration has now come back to haunt us all.