Na wa o! revenue generation is really driving our governors mad. In this horrible state where you have to provide electricity for yourself, now the Lagos state government has decided to levy hapless Nigerians! I think this is sick and very wicked. Over to you guys, wetin una think

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200705292492832

Is that tinubu's parting gift? This our country na wa.

thanks i was looking for this article!

When people are already paying through the nose for goods and services,
the incompetent owambe govt of Tinubu just delivered another bomshell to the smiling people of lagos

These are the kind of treatments lagosians will get if they dont stop passing blame to other governors and the FG
the problem is at Alausa!

This is what happens when a governor can do anything he likes;
when the government's powers are not limited by the constitution.

some people are advocating for federalism. . . this is exactly what the suffering masses will get

<sub>A directive from the government to some manufacturers, which was obtained exclusively by our correspondent on Monday, gave manufacturers 14 days to effect the payment or face a penalty of N200,000.

The directive said owners of generators of 10-40KVA capacity would pay N25,000 while those with 40KVA and above would pay N50,000 as testing fees.

However, manufacturers have kicked against the levy.

“The new levy will definitely worsen the cost of production in the country,” the Director-General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Jide Mike, said in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Monday.

Nigeria, the biggest economy in West Africa, relies heavily on standby generators to power its industries, a situation that has raised the cost of production in the country.

“It is not our making that we have to rely on generators. The government has to provide enough power supply to discourage the use of generators,” Mike added.

The spokesperson, Lagos State Ministry of Environment, Mr. Fola Adeyemi, when contacted on the phone, declined to comment on the policy.

But the directive said the test would commence on all registered generators from June 2007.
It reads, “Generators that emit carbon dioxide beyond 10 per cent must be repaired by the owners within seven days.
“Failure to do so shall attract penalty fees of N5,000 per day until repairs are made.
“Generators with emission of carbon dioxide measuring 20 per cent and beyond shall be shut down immediately.”

Energy cost arising from the use of generators contributes more than 60 per cent to the cost of production in Nigeria, according to Mike.

In spite of assurances to raise power supply to 10,000MW, little has been achieved as only about 3,200MW is currently being generated, according to officials from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

Besides, high oil prices have made the use of generators unprofitable, Mike said.

“The manufacturing sector is still striving to produce. It is not well with the sector,” Mike stressed.
He added that the decision by the state government to introduce the levy would draw back the rate of industrialisation.</sub>

they are joking right

1.Who will pay this fee? manufacturers or people who own/buy generators
2. how can you introduce a new fee and expect people to comply within 14 days?
3. Do they think we buy generators just because we want to cause air pollution
4. what will the money be used for?
5. who came up with this stupid idea!

WOW. . .Our leaders in Nigeria are nothing short of RETARDS. How on earth will you levy the only thing people use to produce anything in Nigeria?. . .What if they decide to shut down entirely?. . .I pity Nigeria!

What is the incentive?. . They want people to stop owning generators in the absence of any other reliable source of power?. . .Someone justify this economically, politically or socially because it honestly makes no sense to me!

Pure madness

I second


Who go pay d levy?Which kain thing b dis sef?

lets avoid a knee jerk reaction and look at the issues in some more detail

Lagos is a highly polluted city, while the costs may be high, it is of urgent importance that we begin to tackle the issue of pollution of our environment. The 25,000 naira is quite small compared to the millions it costs to install a 10KVA generator and above, I don't see the reason for all this hue and cry. Pollution levels need to be regulated, we cannot allow air quality to continue to deteriorate just because we need to produce. the power problems are a different issue which lagos tried to solve but was frustrated at every turn by the inefficient and corrupt federal government.

since the penalties are not targeted at the small domestic gen users, I believe the effect on the general masses will be minimal. Large users of generators can afford to clean up their acts, the 25,000 or 50,000 is very minimal compared to the money they spend already on these generators. a little extra cost for a less polluted environment is worth it in my opinion.

@Debosky

Here you are with your half-baked, lack of insight analysis. There is a tradeoff between reducing pollution and increasing output. Even a high output, advanced economy like the U.S. are reluctant to take on huge environmental initiatives due to its possible effects on production.

Now we have Lagos, a place wher 95% of all production (goods and services), depend on generators. Do you really want to lose the little production you have in the name of taking care of pollution. If they hate pollution so much, clean up the streets and provide an alternative to generators to begin with, then you can begin to talk of generator levies.

Simple cost benefit analysis, the cost of reducing pollution isn't just the money the people pay, it also includes foregone productive activities. Is that what is really needed in Nigeria?

Large users of generators can afford to clean up their acts, the 25,000 or 50,000 is very minimal compared to the money they spend already on these generators. a little extra cost for a less polluted environment is worth it in my opinion.

Why formulate an ineffective policy just to extract money from citizens, money that will be used for the wrong things anyway. Isn't it advisable to leave the people with their money instead of putting it in the hands of some public official that eill use it to train his kid in a Western uni.

There is no possible justification for this policy, these people are RETARDS!

you are wrong Donzman, the complaints here are all based on 'its too expensive' that argument holds no water. an average generator costs in the millions to buy, 50,000 is less than 10% for most of the cases we are talking about, and their running costs far exceed this fee being charged

requesting an inspection to maintain air quality is not a 'huge environmental initiative' as you are claiming, any plant to be set up in the US must meet the most stringent air pollution criteria to be found anywhere in the world, they do not compromise on that, which is why their national ambient air quality standards NAAQS of the US are being replicated worldwide.

charging 50,000 inspection fee on one of the many production inputs is not going to cause us to 'lose the little production' that is completely untrue. The effect will be minimal. a lot of the services you talk about carpenters, hairdressers, welders, pure water makers and co all run small units smaller than 10 KVA, usually in the 0.5-2.5KVA range, and these have been excluded to prevent unnecessary losses of economic output.

simple cost benefit analysis? losing a substantial part of your working population to terminal respiratory dieases is a lot more expensive than a small levy to ensure pollution levels are kept in check.

who are you to claim this policy is ineffective? the same principle is used everywhere for emissions testing at new installations, you must meet minimum standards or get shut down. its not when you have problems like New Delhi or Shanghai requiring people to wear face masks in the street that you will begin to act. the generator business has been going on uncontrolled for too long, its high time the government steps in to regulate things

the issue of sending kids to Uni with the money is a totally different issue altogether, this idea is laudable

I wonder what proportion of the pollution in Lagos State is caused by such generators.I would guess its quite minimal compared to automobile and factory emissions.

Bizs have to operate in Nigeria under heavy burdens,capacity utilisation is no more than 80% and any extra regulatory burden is counter-productive.It will have minimal impact on the environment

[you are wrong Donzman, the complaints here are all based on 'its too expensive' that argument holds no water. an average generator costs in the millions to buy, 50,000 is less than 10% for most of the cases we are talking about, and their running costs far exceed this fee being charged

So it's okay to impose extra costs on businesses trying to make ends meet?

requesting an inspection to maintain air quality is not a 'huge environmental initiative' as you are claiming, any plant to be set up in the US must meet the most stringent air pollution criteria to be found anywhere in the world, they do not compromise on that, which is why their national ambient air quality standards NAAQS of the US are being replicated worldwide.

In the US/Canada, the air quality regulation is set as a standard for the MANUFACTURERS. This is what the Lagos Government should be doing, set a standard and ensure every generator imported into Lagos or sold in Lagos meets the emission standard. If this is such a car, why not levy cars too? Lest we forget, standards are set for the manufacturers to abide by, atleast that's what they do in developed, reasonable economies.

Isn't setting performance standard on manufacturers what other countries use, standard on cars and whatever?. . .This is just a way for some officials to collect levy and make money with no effect on the general well-being.

simple cost benefit analysis? losing a substantial part of your working population to terminal respiratory dieases is a lot more expensive than a small levy to ensure pollution levels are kept in check.

This levy is NOT going to do anything about pollution, somebody is just looking for ways to pay school fees and harrass citizens.

who are you to claim this policy is ineffective? the same principle is used everywhere for emissions testing at new installations, you must meet minimum standards or get shut down. its not when you have problems like New Delhi or Shanghai requiring people to wear face masks in the street that you will begin to act. the generator business has been going on uncontrolled for too long, its high time the government steps in to regulate things

Like I said before, standards are set on manufacturers to ensure uniform quality. The act of harassing users of these equipments have generally failed, I took a course on the economic aspects of environmental pollution this past semester, I'm upto date. This failure will even be magnified in Nigeria when a bribe will force the inspector to look another way.

If you set manufacturing standards like they do for cars, drugs and etcetera, you can inspect them at port of entrance or purchase. This is less costly and more effective.

I-man you have a point, but a good quantity of those factory emissions are caused by generator use.

@ Donzman even if manufacturers maintain the standard, improper installation and use can lead to pollution levels escalating due to cutting corners or improper maintenance. Inspections of industrial facilities are a standard practice in US/Canada and other locales. Inspections and emission testing is usually conducted after installation and periodically afterwards to ensure standards are continuously met such installations are required to send their emission data at regular intervals to the EPA or other bodies.

Manufacturers standards are one aspect of compliance, but the actual usages also matter and should also be regulated.

I am not saying it is right to impose extra cost, my opinion is that if that extra cost will ensure the customers have a longer life span, it is in the long run interest of the manufacturers as well to keep their consumers able to use their products.

I don't buy the idea of rubbishing every program of government under the toga of 'they will chop the money' corruption is an issue, but so also is the issue of pollution and maintenance of standards

your point on bribery and evasion is well taken, the enforcers should take this into account and devise ways to minimise this.

Donzman even if manufacturers maintain the standard, improper installation and use can lead to pollution levels escalating due to cutting corners or improper maintenance. Inspections of industrial facilities are a standard practice in US/Canada and other locales. Inspections and emission testing is usually conducted after installation and periodically afterwards to ensure standards are continuously met such installations are required to send their emission data at regular intervals to the EPA or other bodies.

Good, but you missed the part where the Government forces people to pay in order for their equipment to be inspected. I haven't experienced this before, the Government can inspect all it wants but it cannot make the users pay for the inspection. Do you see the difference?

It's like asking all restaurants to pay so that a food inspector can come and inspect their restaurants. Does that even make sense?

The only instance where I can think of people paying for inspection is in car licensing, even at that, it's not a levy but a payment for labour services.

emissions testing is usually part of the licensing cost paid by the manufacturer/ generator, it is one of the criteria that determines whether you are allowed to open up shop or not.

I envisage labor and lab costs will be involved for this emissions testing as well and I assume (don't know for sure) that these would have been taken into consideration in setting these prices

my personal grouse with the edict is that it seems to focus on CO2 emissions, while that sounds laudable, there is actually nothing a generator user can do to prevent CO2 emissions, it is the natural by product of fossil fuel combustion. what would make more sense is setting CO (carbon monoxide) emission limits, as well as NOX, SOX and other PAH's and other dangerous pollutants which directly affect human health.

Conclusion: Policy makes little sense!

Policy makes no sense , debosky i dont know in what planet u live in the first place , wait untill the inpection starts, then u would here of officials turning the other way if they are given bribes of say 3 to 5,000 naira , then you would see if this would have effect at all , this policy is pure madness .

If the Govt provided electricity,there will be little need for these generators.Having failed to provide adequate electricity,one branch of the Govt now seeks to levy generator owners.Ridiculous

unfortunately I-man is right,

if this policy in itself is aimed solely at generator users, then is a product of the failure of power generation resulting in another problem which leads to further hardship

@ egoldman I acknowledge that such practices are prone to occur, but do we on account of that just let things go out of hand unregulated? Enforcement of Environmental laws in Nigeria is a prime cause of many problems in the country today, such as the ND. We need to start from somewhere and move on from there. Lessons learned from this enforcement if carried out properly can be extended to other areas as well to improve overall compliance.

@ Donzman since we don't have all the details concerning what the inspections will entail, I reserve my judgement till I see the criteria.

But what is this again? Which individual or firm would want to run on generators if public power supply is available. Any kind of levy is not fair. Remember high costs of running gens raise product prices.
Kai, what a country

But what is this again? Which individual or firm would want to run on generators if public power supply is available. Any kind of levy is not fair. Remember high costs of running gens raise product prices.
Kai, what a country

I dont know who Fashola's advisers are but he has started on a very sour note. This is nonsense and uncalled for. Is this how he wants to payback the people that voted massively for him, in the face of a serious PDP threat? What a shame.
And has anyone seen how the area boys and fare collectors , have almost doubled on the streets of Lagos? I think we should start forming a pressure group to pressurise the Federal government to look into this Lagos issues. We are Nigerians and no one should treat us like an extension of his backyard

Abi na true

wee the light when dey lagos when make him wan collect levy for  generator!

Abeg what of people when dey use (i rich pass my neighbour) them too go pay levy?
O ma sheoooo

@tasiana
Its for high capacity generators.

I-man:

If the Govt provided electricity,there will be little need for these generators.Having failed to provide adequate electricity,one branch of the Govt now seeks to levy generator owners.Ridiculous

exactly !

i dont care if it is N25 OR N25,000 or for high capacity generators!  The point of the policy is useless,  generators are used because the infrastructure for electricity is almost non existent!  This is not a laudable policy, it is stupid!  And then this would drive the cost of production for those who manufacture products in Nigeria

@ debosky,

i think you should start a business in lag (not onitsha) and lets see if you'd still have this same view point.

@ topic,

lagos is nigeria's commercial capital. for the system to function properly, electricity is a must. most government parastatals actually run generators becos of the inefficiency of the phcn.so i guess it is a case of he who is without guilt should cast the 1st stone.

if you levy generator users, the cost will ultimately fall back on the people the govt seeks to protect becos lagos as a whole runs on generators!!!! production companies will no doubt transfer the cost to the consumers, and blv me if every company in lagos decides to put off their generators of 10kva and above, you can be rest assured the economy will come to a standstill.

instead of the govt trying to impose levies that wont work (which i think is the easiest way to swindle hard working lagosians of some money), the govt should focus on cleaning up the dirtiest city in this country. that should give them plenty to chew upon.

in a nut shell, generators and by extension the proposed levy will not be necessary if the govt had not failed in their duty to the citizens.

Na wa ooooo.

This is unbelivable.
What there are legislative bill to this effect?
How come ?
Who does not have generator either at home or in the office?

Our lives depend mostly on enegry from generator with the inefficient of the ALMIGHTY NEPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

I am yet to believe thissssssss.

Fashola must reverse the unpopular  Govt. policy oooo

This is the craziest thing i have heard in recent times! an absolute no brainer and i hope it will be met with total resistance. what the hell do these clowns take us for?

@debosky
I see no point at all in ur argument it is simply annoying. makes no sense.

@donzman
You are very correct

Salvage:

I don't know who Fashola's advisers are but he has started on a very sour note. This is nonsense and uncalled for. Is this how he wants to payback the people that voted massively for him, in the face of a serious PDP threat? What a shame.
And has anyone seen how the area boys and fare collectors , have almost doubled on the streets of Lagos? I think we should start forming a pressure group to pressurise the Federal government to look into this Lagos issues. We are Nigerians and no one should treat us like an extension of his backyard

I totally agree with u o! and i am game (for the pressure group) enough of this nonsense.  

9ja *sighs*

For those in other parts of Nigeria looking at this as a Lagos thing,think again.
By the time this stupid idea catches on and transcends to the East it will take on wings and develop teeth sef.

Where on earth do these individuals get these stupid ideas from?
This is like the case of a man who is diagnosed as anemic and the doctor that gave him the diagnosis insists he donates blood!