Petrol Tanker Drivers Threaten Strike.

The national leadership of the Nigerian
Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO,
has appealed to Petrol Tankers Drivers, PTD,
branch of the National Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas, NUPENG, to shelve its planned
nationwide strike due to commence on 23 May.
The leadership of PTD had given NARTO a two-
week ultimatum, starting from 9th May, after
which all their members nationwide will
withdraw their services, thereby crippling the
supply of petroleum products throughout the
country if their demands are not met.
The dispute is about the agreement PTD has
with NARTO on review of salary and condition
of service which was signed and was to take
effect from August, 2012.
NARTO has, however, appealed to the leadership
of PTD not to call out its members on strike as
the said agreement will be implemented when
the funds earmarked for the implementation are
released by the Federal Inland Revenue Service
who is holding on to the excess of 5%
withholding tax wrongfully deducted by major
oil marketers from road transport owners.
The refund has been approved by the
government through the Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Authority, PPPRA.
In a letter to PTD, National President of NARTO,
Alhaji Kassim Bataiya, said "We wish to state
clearly that the association acknowledges the
existence of the agreement between the national
leadership of NARTO and that of PTD in respect
of the review of salary and condition of service
for our drivers, your members, which was signed
and to take effect from the August, 2012. We
assure you that our association is still bound by
the content and spirit of that agreement".
Bataiya explained that the inability of NARTO to
immediately implement the agreement was due
to the refusal of FIRS to release already
processed part of the wrongly deducted tax
amounting to N2.7 billion to NARTO.
According to him, the failure of the FIRS to
release the money adversely affected the
expected income of his members thereby making
it difficult for them to meet their obligation as
contained in the agreement. He said NARTO was
committed to ensuring harmony in the
downstream sector of the petroleum industry
and availability of petroleum products in all the
nooks and crannies of the country.