Court clears way for possible fuel Hike

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Court clears way for possible fuel Hike

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Nigeria court clears way for possible fuel strike

ABUJA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A Nigerian court cleared the way for a possible general strike over fuel taxes on Friday by dismissing a government suit against the umbrella trade union.

The Abuja Court of Appeal said it had no jurisdiction to hear the case, effectively reversing an interim order it issued last month preventing the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) from going on strike against the controversial fuel tax.

The court had also banned the government from collecting the tax of 1.50 naira (one cent) per litre until it decided on the case.

The tax can now be collected but the unions are free to strike if it is, possibly bringing Africa's most populous country to standstill.

"Our next line of action will depend on the way the government reacts to the court's decision. We are ready for dialogue," NLC President Adams Oshiomhole told reporters.

The government's lawyers said they would appeal to a federal high court.

The legal wrangle began on January 16 when a lower court refused to issue an order banning a nationwide strike against the fuel tax planned for January 21.

The government appealed against that ruling to the Abuja Court of Appeal, which decided the day before the strike that neither party should disrupt the status quo.

It ordered unions to call off the strike and the government to stop collecting the tax until it had decided on the substance of the case.

The court ruled on Friday it had no power to act.

"This court is incompetent to hear this case and therefore strikes it out," Justice Isah Salami said.

The ruling was a major victory for unions who had called the tax, announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo in his 2004 budget proposals, the last straw for Nigeria's 130 million people, two-thirds of whom live on less than a dollar a day.

Nigeria is the world's seventh biggest exporter of crude oil, but depends on imports to meet local demand estimated at some 30 million litres (6.599 million Imp gallons) per day, because its four refineries do not work properly.

The OPEC member has doubled fuel prices over the past year to remove subsidies estimated at about $2 billion a year and deregulate the market ahead of planned privatisation of the refineries.

General strikes rarely affect Nigeria's oil output of two million barrels per day or exports, which provide the bulk of government revenue. Controlled by multinationals, the oil industry is more vulnerable to ethnic strife in the Niger delta region, where it is based.


02/06/04 10:51 ET
"It is not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you are not."

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