Why does it matter?
The Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said this while speaking on Channels Tv on Thursday. She described fuel subsidy as a waste of
time and a means of draining the Nation’s economy. She further explained that the
Federal Government is making plans to replace it with transport subsidy.
The Big Picture.
Speaking in an interview on Channel’s TV show, politics today, Mrs. Ahmed said: The
Petroleum Industry Act that has been passed has a provision that says petroleum
products should be deregulated, which means there should be no subsidy of any
petroleum product. In making our plans, we assume that this deregulation would take
effect from July 2022.
“It is important that we exit the subsidy. It is costing us a significant amount of
resources that we could have applied for education, health and critical infrastructure.
It is a major waste and drain on the economy.” She broadened her point by saying; She said, “Who is benefiting from this subsidy? It is the people with a number of cars that they run. It is not the person entering a bus from the village to the market. If you look at those large mass transit buses, they run on diesel and diesel is deregulated.
“If you look at trucks that carry goods from farm to market, they run on diesel. What
the common man use for cooking is kerosene; that also is deregulated. So, why should we continue to keep the subsidy for a product that is only benefitting the people that
can actually afford the market price?” She concluded by saying if all the right factors are in place the Federal Government might end fuel subsidy as soon as July 2022.