The National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), has called off its strike , following the intervention of the Federal Government towards the policies aimed at alleviating the plight of truck drivers in the country.
This development was announced by the President of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, Yusuf Lawal after the union has been making efforts to offer services despite the cost of subsidy removal and the rise in the cost of the dollar.
He made the disclosure at a meeting between the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), NARTO and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday.
Lawal who was represented by kassim Bataiya, the union’s Coordinator of National Operations made emphasis on the critical role of truck drivers in the petroleum products .
“We are happy that the committee invited us to this meeting at this crucial time in our nation’s history where our economy is faced with high inflation and the deteriorating exchange rate of the naira.”
“Let me give you a typical example. We are paid N30 per litre to lift Petroleum Motor Spirit from Lagos to the NNPC depot in Suleja. N30 per litre of 40,000 litres is N1.2m.The truck consumes a minimum of 900 litres of diesel at N1,500 per litre which is about N1.450m, which is N250 above the fret rate.
“The N1.3m fret rate is subject to 5 per cent withholding tax deducted and payable to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which is shared to the three tiers of government without even thinking or considering the drivers’ allowance, wages, salaries. So, it is difficult if not impossible for a transporter to load a truck from Lagos to any depot,” He said
Bataiya said unfortunately it was impossible for the union to operate optimally because all the components of trucks today are import-dependent. The union also import tyres, batteries, spare parts and even vehicles are imported at a high cost of the dollar exchange rate as transportation is not even in the classification of dollar allocation.
“The emergence of NARTO was as a result of the failure of NNPC now NNPCL to put our pipelines in operation. If we had our pipelines across the country which were designed to move petroleum products from where it was produced or imported to the various NNPC deports across Nigeria, we wouldn’t have these problems.
“We are not entitled to apply for dollar allocation from the Central Bank of Nigeria to import the spare parts and accessories of the vehicle,” he added.
The Chairman of the Committee, Ikenga Ugochinyere, explained that the committee has agreed to investigate the activities of retail owners who pay for petroleum products and middlemen, who sell the products to the real petrol outlet owners, which is the reason the price keeps rising.
“The committee has agreed to a stakeholders’ recommendation from NARTO, PETROAN and others to help in tackling some of the immediate and long-term needs in the industry to help ensure stability”, he said.
