The Federal Government has implemented a seven point five per cent tax on imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly called cooking gas, as the cost of the commodity leap by over one hundred percent within a period of eight months.

It was gathered that the government implemented the Value Added Tax on Liquefied Petroleum Gas imports about three weeks ago and some dealers were also mandated to pay the tax for commodities imported several months ago.

Operators told reporters that Nigeria imports about seventy percent of the commodity, while the rest was mainly supplied by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company.

It was also gathered that the cost of a twelve point five kilograms  of cooking gas that sold for about three thousand five hundred naira in December 2020 had jumped to as high as six thousand eight hundred naira  in parts of Abuja.

The National Chairman, Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Association of Nigeria, Mr Michael Umudu, said there were three factors that caused the surge in price.

Mr Umudu stated that before the introduction of Value Added Tax, foreign exchange and cost of petroleum products in the international market had been the factors causing the rise in price.