Nkechi Obi, Group Managing Director, GMD, Techno Oil Limited has urged the Nigerian Federal Government to restore its 40 percent import duties policies on the importation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, and Compressed Natural Gas, CNG,
cylinders.
She made this call recently during a panel session at the 2024 Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja.
Obi explained that the government needed to discourage importation by reversing its recent zero import policy on LPG, and CNG to boost local manufacturers
“We need policy reversal on that to encourage local producers. The unofficial explanation we are getting from some customs officers is that the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which the government wants to encourage its usage in Nigeria, has the same Harmonised System (HS) code as LPG.
“So, the import benefits placed on CNG equipment eventually affected LPG equipment; that is why they were tied together on the zero import duties.
“Harmonised System codes are commonly used throughout the import and export process for the classification of goods.
“For me, we don’t produce CNG cylinders in Nigeria because it involves advanced technology but we produce LPG cylinders here.
“For us to produce CNG cylinders, we have to change one or two machines, and we expect the government to encourage us to upscale our technology to 32, which we are planning to do.
“The previous government protected those producing cylinders so that import will not overshadow local production; they did that to encourage local manufacturing but when this government came into existence, policy changed.
“We only enjoyed that policy for six months before it was scrapped and replaced with the new “zero import duties” policy.
“We have to produce CNG cylinders and the government needs to consider those that will go into that production. But if government policy is killing the LPG cylinder production that we are doing, it will be very difficult to enter into CNG cylinder production,” she said.
Recall that in January 2024, the Nigerian government approved zero import duties on LPG and CNG to boost the rollout of gas-enabled vehicles.