FG Says It Will Spend N200 Billion Monthly on Palliatives After Fuel Subsidy Removal
- The federal government is keen to end some of the fiscal imbalances occasioned by the regressive fuel subsidy regime
- Officials of the Buhari administration have announced that they will end subsidy on petroleum products next year
- But mindful of the economic impact the removal will have on poor citizens, the government has announced certain measures it would take to cushion the effects
FCT, Abuja - The federal government has said it would be spending about N200 billion monthly to provide social welfare packages to very poor Nigerians to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal next year.
The minister of finance, budget and national planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said N5,000 palliative will be disbursed to an estimated number of 40 million Nigerians below the poverty line to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal that is planned to be implemented from July next year.
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It is not clear yet if the proposed amount for the poor and most vulnerable Nigerians was budgeted for in the 2022 budget that is currently before the National Assembly.
Leadership newspaper reports that the minister made the remarks on Tuesday, November 23 at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update.
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The finance minister said the final number of expected beneficiaries would be dependent on the resources available after the removal of the fuel subsidy, indicating that the government had not still had a clear-cut implementation process for sharing the N5,000 palliative.
She put the figure of the poorest population of the country at between 20 and 40 million, which are expected to be the beneficiaries.
NNPC hopeful for revolution in Nigeria's oil and gas industry
On its part, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has stated that the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) will revolutionalise the nation’s oil and gas industry
ThisDay newspaper quoted an official of the NNPC, Bala Wunti saying the operationalisation of the PIA would bring about certainty, competitiveness and cost optimisation in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
Kyari says subsidy regime will be over by 2022
Legit.ng had earlier quoted Malam Mele Kyari, the GMD of NNPC, as saying Nigeria should be out of subsidy regime by the end of February 2022.
The NNPC boss said there will be no provision for subsidy legally, adding that it is now backed by law.
He, however, stated that the Nigerian government has a bigger social responsibility to cater for the ordinary and will ensure that the subsidy regime is exited in the most subtle and easy manner.
An NNPC had earlier revealed that petrol subsidy payments gulped N714 billion in the last seven months, shrinking monthly revenue accrued to the federation account.
The report explained that the subsidy or under-recovery is the underpriced sales of premium motor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol.
The report also provided a month on month breakdown of all the payments made to oil marketers from January to September.
Source: Legit.ng
