The Nigerian government clarifies gasoline, additional diesel costs

The federal government has denied the report that an additional five percent fee in gasoline and diesel will take effect in January 2026, saying that there is no implementation date that has been set.

The Chairperson of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform, Taiwo Oyedele, clarified the issue in a video message released on Friday, emphasizing that while the tax law that was only signed by the President of Bola Tinubu in June did provide additional costs, only the Minister of Finance had the authority to determine when it would begin.

“What we have is the provisions that already exist under the Law of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, which has now been consolidated into the new tax law. However, that does not apply in January 2026, as reported in a wrong manner,” Oyedele said.

Additional costs, when introduced, only apply to fossil fuel products such as gasoline and diesel, while not including cleaner energy sources such as cooking gas, compressed natural gas, and household kerosene.

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Levies are not entirely new. This was first introduced in the 2002 Law which established Ferma, and then expanded through the 2007 amendment law, which created a funding mechanism that allocated 40 percent of results for Ferma and 60 percent to state road maintenance agents.

Oyedele noted that the income from the cost was intended to support transportation infrastructure, which, in turn, could reduce logistics costs and facilitate inflation.

Since the transfer of fuel subsidies in 2023, the price of gasoline has increased three times and inflation has jumped, increasing public concerns that other fuel levies, every time they are introduced, can further extort household income and complicate the government’s efforts to stabilize the economy.