The recent closure of the ever-busy Third Mainland Bridge which would last for six months and the increment in transport fare announced by the Lagos-State Bus Services (LBSL) will aggravate the pain already inflicted by the double-whammy of the pandemic and economic slowdown.
“The metropolis (Lagos) loses about N4.6trillion on an annual basis due to traffic congestion,” Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer, Financial Derivatives said.
That’s more than triple of the state’s annual budget.
“The closure of the bridge will further reduce labour productivity, increase revenue losses and widen price differential across markets” Bismarck added.
The recent increase in the price of premium motor spirit popularly called petrol announced by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, (PPPRA), the agency saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and regulating the supply and distribution and determine the prices of petroleum products across the country, will worsen the surging food inflation, thereby impacting the purchasing power of already cash-strapped households in the country.
Nigeria’s June inflation jumped 12.56percent, accelerating for the 10th straight month as restrictions on access to foreign exchange and continued border closure drove up prices. Inflation figures have been well above the Central Bank’s target of 6-9percent for over five years.
According to the approved new retail price for petrol for the month will vary between N140.80 and N143.80 per litre price band. The new price arrangement replaces the previous price band of N121.50 and N123.50 per litre announced by the agency for June 2020.
“After a review of the prevailing market fundamentals in the month of June, and considering marketers’ realistic operating costs as well as practicable, we (PPPRA) wish to advise a new PMS (premium motor spirit) pump price band of N140.80-N143.80 per litre for the month of July 2020 the new retail price band for premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, for June 2020,” the agency noted in a release.
Emeka Nwadike, a Lagos-based financial expert noted that the recent pronouncement would further make the life of Nigerians miserable.
“Some of these announcements are not coming at the right time” he said. “Governments across the globe are coming up with policies and stimulus to reduce the impact of the pandemic and revive the economy to avoid further job losses, but the contrary is the case here in Nigeria,” he lamented.
It would be recalled that the Federal Inland Revenue Service announced a 6percent stamp duty charge on tenancy and lease agreements. The new 6percent stamp duty is for tenancy above 21 years while 7-21 years lease attracts 3percent while less than 7years tenancy is below 1percent.
In what could further stifle the operations of car-hailing businesses, the Lagos State government introduced a new fee for service entity permit provisional license. Under the new law, operators must pay N10million for every 1,000 e-hailing taxis with the annual renewal of N5million.
“This licensing fee will not present a problem for larger e-hailing operators but it will raise the barrier of entry for newcomers,” a driver who craved anonymity said.
Also, operators of E-hailing taxi service must pay the state government 10percent service tax on each transaction paid by the passenger to the operators.
The real losers will be the riders of Uber and Bolt as the 10percent will be passed as cost to customers, making the cab fares more expensive. Also, section 4.2 of the Act makes provision for the state agencies to have access to the database of the e-hailing operators in the state.
Reacting to incessant government policies targeted at business Kemi Adewole, a Lagos-based resident said the government cannot tax its way into prosperity when other systems are not in place and moths of corruption is still eating deep into the fabrics of our nation.
