FG to stop petrol subsidy in June – minister

Spread the love

Davos, Jan, 18, 2023 – Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, says the federal government may stop petrol subsidy in June.

She said it would be more appropriate for the government to begin the removal of fuel subsidy in the second quarter of 2023.

 Ahmed said this while speaking on an interview with Arise TV at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

The minister said the country needed to exit the fuel subsidy regime since it had become a very significant contributory factor to revenue loss.

“You can look at it in two ways, the payments made are revenues that would have come to the government, but don’t because it is being spent on fuel subsidy.

“Also, where there is not enough revenue to buy the refined petroleum products, we have to borrow to buy the products, so, if we take that out, that is over N3 trillion, it’s a significant relief if we do not incur any more than that number that we projected for 2023,” she said.

Ahmed said as a collective decision, the government decided to extend the July 2022 date  for the stoppage of subsidy due to the lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the heightened inflation in the country.

She said that the removal of the fuel subsidy at that time would have increased the burden on the Nigerian citizens and the president did not want that.

“It was a decision that was taken as a collective, recognising the fact that due to the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and also heightened inflation, the removal of the first subsidy at that time will have increased more burden on the citizens,”  she said.  (GBN)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *