The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria has said its support President Bola Tinubu recently approved 15 percent import duty on petrol and diesel.

The national president of PETROAN, Billy Gilly-Harry made this known in an interview with the media on Friday.

This follows the federal government’s approval of 15 per cent import duty on petrol and diesel, expected to be implemented immediately.

The policy decision had attracted mixed reactions from Nigerians and stakeholders.

Speaking on the development, Gilly-Harry said the whole idea of the new tariff is to secure the local production and local refineries.

However, he said PETROAN would look out for the impact of the policy on its members and Nigerians in the coming days.

“This whole idea is to secure local production that is local refineries. We are very much in support of it. However, we will take a few more days to analyse its impact,” he said

He added that policy may affect petrol pricing in the long run.

Earlier, the spokesperson for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the policy is a bridge not a burden on Nigerians.

Also, a popular economist and Chief Executive of Financial Derivatives, Bismarck Rewane expressed support for the policy noting that its would boost local production of petroleum products.

However, some Nigerians and stakeholders have kicked against the policy, stressing it would worsen the hardship already being experienced by citiizens.