The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Monday, kicked against the increase on duties and tariffs payable on imported vehicles as from next year and took a swipe at the Federal Government for raising the tariffs without providing a viable alternative.
NLC President, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, who was speaking in Kaduna at the ongoing NLC 12th Harmattan School, berated the Federal Government for “its notorious penchant to initiate policies capable of inflicting pains on the working people in the country.”
The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, recently came out with the new tariffs on imported vehicles which raised the charges by about 70 per cent effective from January 2014.
The NLC president lamented the rate of official graft under the present administration and declared that the announcement of the new tariffs barely few weeks to the commencement of implementation further confirmed people’s fear that the minister was merely implementing IMF programme in the country.
He pointed out that raising tariffs without providing an alternative would merely expose and put Nigerian people at the mercies of unscrupulous car dealers who would exploit the situation to create artificial scarcity with its attendant effects on transportation.
Omar said: “It is lamentable that the Federal Government has again come up with a programme that has the tendency to inflict pains on the working people in Nigeria. We were told that Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance has announced a new tariff regime that raises the charges on imported vehicles by 70 per cent.
“While NLC is not opposed to the new policy, we hold that coming up with a new tariff barely few weeks to its implementation without viable alternative is not proper. In the least, it would just leave Nigerian people under the grips of some unscrupulous dealers who would lash on the new tariff to create artificial scarcity.”
No comments:
Post a Comment