Just in: Again FG recants, suspends fuel subsidy removal

The Federal Government has again backtracked on the removal of petrol subsidy and has suspended it for now.

A decision to this effect was announced on Thursday by the National Economic Council (NEC) held in Abuja.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while briefing newsmen after the NEC meeting held at the State House, Abuja.

“The Council agreed that the timing of the removal of fuel subsidy should not be now, but that government should continue with all of the preparatory works that needed to be done.

“It was agreed that these preparatory works had to be done in consultation with the states and other key stakeholders, including representatives of the incoming administration,” Ahmed said.

According to her, the Council agreed that the fuel subsidy must be removed earlier rather than later because it was not sustainable.

“We cannot afford it anymore. But we have to do it in such a way that the impact of the subsidy is as much as possible, mitigated on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.”

Ahmed said this would require looking at alternatives to the fuel subsidy that needed to be planned for and subsequently put in place and also also what needed to be done to support the people that would be most affected as a result of the removal.

She said the Federal Government had a plan that it would start working on by putting the “building blocks towards the eventual removal of the first subsidy.”

“The budget for 2023 had a provision for fuel subsidy only up to June 2023 and that the Petroleum Industry Act had a provision that required that all petroleum products must be deregulated 18 months after the effective date of the PMS removal and that the period was also up to June 2023,” the minister explained.