The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has clarified that the controversial 5 per cent fuel surcharge was not introduced by the administration of President Bola Tinubu but has existed in law since 2007.
Oyedele, speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, said the provision had remained dormant for years because fuel subsidy regimes made its implementation impractical.
“One very important message for people to know is that this surcharge was not introduced by this government. It was introduced in 2007,” he explained. “And then it was not implemented because the government was subsidising fuel.”
The clarification comes amid public outrage over reports that Nigerians would start paying an additional 5 per cent on every litre of petrol from January, a claim that has fuelled criticisms from civil society groups, trade unions and business associations.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has already threatened to embark on strike, while the Organised Private Sector has strongly rejected the surcharge, describing it as ill-timed in the face of biting economic hardship.
Oyedele, however, stressed that the Tinubu administration neither proposed the surcharge nor included it in the recent tax bills signed into law. According to him, the matter only surfaced during legislative deliberations on tax reforms.
“While we were doing this tax reform, it was not even in the original proposal, so it was not like the President proposed it to the National Assembly,” he said.
“But in the process of working on the bills, these issues came up, and then the decision was made that we should not have different agencies collecting taxes.”
Under the 2007 law, the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) was mandated to collect the surcharge, with 40 per cent allocated to federal roads and 60 per cent to state governments. Oyedele noted that the levy was designed to maintain Nigeria’s road infrastructure, insisting that Nigerians would ultimately benefit if it is implemented.
He further dismissed claims that January 2026 has been fixed for its rollout, saying there is no directive or timeline yet for implementation.
The debate over the fuel surcharge adds to the growing tension around government policies since the removal of fuel subsidy last year, which has pushed up the cost of living and triggered repeated face-offs with organised labour.
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