Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, says the National Economic
Council (NEC) is still deliberating on recommendations by the ad-hoc committee
on fuel subsidy removal.
The governor also added that recommendations “may have been
made to President [Muhammadu Buhari]”.
Recall that the ad-hoc committee recommended
full deregulation of PMS prices by February 2022 — raising the price by about
N130/140 per litre to N302/litre.
Obaseki said this on Thursday at the end of the NEC’s
meeting in Abuja.
The council’s meeting was chaired by Yemi Osinbajo,
vice-president.
Giving his opinion at the end of the meeting, Obaseki
pointed out that petroleum sells at a fair price compared to neighbouring
countries, adding that the amount spent on subsidy could be channelled to other
pressing needs such as infrastructure, education, healthcare.
According to him, the council wondered whether that should
be allowed to continue in a situation where it observed only two-thirds of the
states of the federation consume the subsidy.
“As you all know and
aware, the issue of subsidy has been one matter that NEC has deliberated on,
for more than a year now,” Obaseki said.
“There was an ad-hoc committee, which was set up by NEC
headed by Governor El-Rufai that included members of the executive arm of
government that worked on recommendations as to what we should do about the
costs of PMS locally because as you realise, as has been told us, the cost of
PMS in Nigeria today is about N162 per litre.
“Whereas every other country surrounding Nigeria is selling
the same product at more than 100% of the cost in Nigeria.
“As for NEC, the arguments remain. Should we continue this
regime of spending money we do not have to subsidise the living standards of
only mostly those who have vehicles? And when NEC looked at some of the
analyses last year, we then realised that less than one-third of the states of
this country consume two-thirds of the subsidy.
“The issue of equity
also came up. All of these findings were presented to NEC, and NEC has had
several deliberations. And the deliberations are still ongoing. So, no, NEC has
not come up with any decision yet. I think recommendations have also been made
to the President. That is what I am aware has transpired so far.”
Obaseki further spoke on how the subsidy deductions have
affected states and how it is surviving.
“Well, I’ll put it very succinctly. As at last year, NNPC
was supposed to contribute N200 billion a month to FAAC for distribution to the
states,” he added.
“But because of the payment of subsidy, NNPC was unable to
put that money into FAAC for distribution, which means less money going to the
States and less money going to the federal government.
On his part, Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa state,
said it is understandable that the provision for the payment of the subsidy is
made after the expiration of the 2022 budget in June as the committee set up
for the matter is yet to decide.
“We didn’t make any presentations on this because there has
not been a decision. But in reality, all of us Nigerians know that there is now
the Petroleum Industry Act. NNPC has now become a limited liability company,”
Sule said.
“NNPC will run differently.
So if the Minister of finance provides for six months before NNPC fully takes
off, that’s when decisions will be made.
“But I want to make the correction that it is not governors
who are making recommendations. It is NEC committee, you know, which comprises
of all the other people that are looking at this and no decision has been made
and probably by the time a decision will be made, you know, the Petroleum
Industry Act would have fully taken charge, and it will not require any
recommendation from anybody.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com