Nigeria’s ongoing tax reform is steadily transforming the way road-related taxes and levies are administered across the country. A major milestone in this reform process occurred when the Joint Revenue Board (JRB) announced the nationwide abolition of road stickers and roadside tax collections.
The decision, reached during the Board’s 158th meeting in Abuja, was aimed at sanitizing the revenue ecosystem, eliminating harassment of motorists, and putting an end to the proliferation of illegal levies and checkpoints along Nigerian roads.
While the abolition of stickers has been widely welcomed by motorists and businesses, it also creates an operational vacuum in the areas of vehicle enumeration, haulage compliance verification, and standardized identification of vehicles involved in commercial transport activities.
To address this gap, the next phase of reform will introduce a new system known as the Haulage Tag.
The Haulage Tag: The Next Phase of Compliance
The Haulage Tag is a standardized vehicle identification and verification instrument that will be issued across Nigeria by State Internal Revenue Services on behalf of the JRB.
Unlike the former road stickers that were often associated with multiple taxation and roadside enforcement, the Haulage Tag represents a centralized, transparent, and technology-enabled compliance mechanism.
Key features of the Haulage Tag include:
One-time issuance per vehicle:
The tag will be issued once during the lifetime of a vehicle.Cost of issuance:
The initial issuance fee for the tag is NGN 10,000.Annual maintenance requirement:
While the tag itself is issued once, vehicle owners will be required to pay a yearly maintenance or validation fee to keep the tag active within the system.Tamper-proof installation:
The Haulage Tag will be securely installed on the windshield of the vehicle and designed to be tamper-resistant, ensuring authenticity and preventing duplication or illegal transfers.