The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has issued a stern warning to the Bola Tinubu administration to immediately withdraw its proposed 5% tax on petroleum products or face a crippling nationwide shutdown.
The new tax law imposes a 5% surcharge on chargeable fossil fuel products, which, according to the Act, becomes applicable at the point of supply, sale, or payment.
The Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee clarified that the 5% fuel surcharge is not a fresh levy introduced by President Tinubu’s administration.
In a frequently asked questions document released on Saturday, the committee’s chairman, Taiwo Oyedele, explained that the surcharge has existed since the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (Amendment) Act, 2007.
He said it was only restated in the new tax act for harmonisation and transparency.
However, in a statement signed on Monday by TUC President, Festus Osifo, and General Secretary, Nuhu Toro, the union described the move as a “reckless act of economic wickedness” aimed at punishing already impoverished Nigerians.
Oyedele defended the surcharge as a mechanism to provide steady funding for road projects and bridge Nigeria’s huge infrastructure gap, noting that more than 150 countries already charge similar or higher rates.
But the TUC dismissed the explanation as insensitive and anti-people, stressing that citizens were still struggling with the pains of petrol subsidy removal, skyrocketing pump prices, galloping food inflation, and a rapidly devaluing naira.
“This reckless proposal is nothing but an act of economic wickedness against already overburdened Nigerians,” the union leaders declared.
“To now introduce another levy on petroleum products is to deliberately compound suffering, cripple businesses, and push millions deeper into poverty.”
The union gave the Nigerian government 14 days to scrap the policy or risk a nationwide strike that would paralyse critical sectors.
“All affiliates of the Congress have been placed on standby,” the statement added.
“Strike action is firmly on the table if government dares to ignore this warning and go ahead to implement this policy.”
The TUC further called on civil society groups, student unions, market associations, religious leaders, and ordinary Nigerians to join what it described as a collective struggle against policies that seek to “further impoverish citizens and mortgage our future.”
“Instead of offering relief, jobs, and solutions, this government has chosen to squeeze citizens dry,” the union fumed. “Enough is enough. Nigerians deserve economic justice, not endless punishment.”
