By our reporter/ The federal government on Monday announced the postponement of the planned petrol subsidy removal till further notice.
Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget, national planning, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a meeting with Senate President Ahmad Lawan, explained that “high inflation and economic hardship”, necessitated the move.
The government had planned to stop subsidy payments on petroleum products from July this year.
Monday’s meeting was attended by Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources; representatives of oil companies, among others.
According to the minister, the government had to reconsider its decision after the 2022 budget was passed.
Ahmed said petrol subsidy was provided for in the 2022 budget to run from January till June but that current realities shows that the timing for the removal of petrol subsidy will be problematic as the country still experiences heightened inflation.
She said, “Provision was made in the 2022 budget for subsidy payment from January till June. That suggested that from July, there would be no subsidy.”
”The provision was made sequel to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act, which indicated that all petroleum products would be deregulated.
“Sequel to the passage of the PIA, we went back to amend the fiscal framework to incorporate the subsidy removal.
However, after the budget was passed, we had consultations with a number of stakeholders, and it became clear that the timing was problematic.
“We discovered that practically, there is still heightened inflation and that the removal of subsidy would further worsen the situation and impose more difficulties on the citizenry.
“Mr President (Muhammadu Buhari), does not want to do that. What we are now doing is to continue with the ongoing discussions and consultations in terms of putting in place a number of measures.
“One of these include the roll-out of the refining capacities of the existing refineries and the new ones, which would reduce the amount of products that would be imported into the country.
“We, therefore, need to return to the National Assembly to now amend the budget and make additional provision for subsidy from July 2022 to whatever period that we agreed was suitable for the commencement of the total removal.”
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