"Prepare for a Fuel Price Surge: Tinubu Greenlights 15% Import Duty on Petrol and Diesel"

Table of Contents

• Fuel Price Increase
• Presidential Approval
• Impact on Prices
• Import Dependency
• Dangote Refinery's Position
• Recent Developments

A new increase in fuel prices is imminent as President Bola Tinubu has sanctioned a 15 percent ad valorem import duty on automotive gas oil (diesel) and premium motor spirit (PMS), commonly referred to as petrol.

According to The Guardian, this information was shared in a letter dated October 21, 2025, in which the president's private secretary, Damilotun Aderemi, communicated Tinubu’s approval to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

Tinubu granted his approval in response to a request from the FIRS to impose the 15 percent duty on the cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) in order to align import costs with domestic conditions.

With this approval, the implementation of the import duty is expected to raise the current price of petrol and diesel in Abuja, which is between N950 and N960 per litre for petrol and between N1,120 and N1,140 for diesel, by approximately N99.72 kobo.

This change would likely push petrol prices above N1,000 per litre at most filling stations that depend on imports once it is implemented.

Recent figures from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority indicate that the total supply of PMS for August 2024 and October 2025 was 21.68 billion litres. The report noted that only 6.67 billion litres of petrol, or 31 percent, come from local refineries (specifically the Dangote Refinery), while 15.01 billion litres, or 69 percent, are imported.

This indicates that a significant portion of Nigerians continues to depend heavily on imported petrol.

As of October 21, 2025, the price is cheaper than the Dangote Refinery’s ex-depot price of N877 per litre, based on fuel price data released by the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria.

The import duty tax on petrol and diesel places Dangote Refinery’s petrol in a more favorable position.

In the past two weeks, following an increase in ex-depot prices by Dangote Refinery and depot owners, this approval comes at a time when the FIRS has also recently instructed banks, stockbrokers, and other financial institutions to withhold a 10 percent tax on interest earned from short-term securities.