Fuel subsidy will soon be removed- Timipre Sylva

The Minister for state Petroleum Timipre Sylva on Monday said fuel subsidy will soon be removed. 

Sylva while speaking to journalists said there is no going back on the government’s plan to remove subsidy as the government can no longer afford it. 

Sylva said: “I cannot say exactly what the figure is. I will have to check with the DPR to get you the figure. Of course, you know that the DPR has always contributed to the federation revenue because they collect royalties and so on

“But as to filling the gap, it will not always be there, it is not as if the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that after last month, they will not be able to. You may not know when next they will announce it. So, you cannot say that they (DPR) will continue to fill in the gap.

“NNPC announced that they could not make contributions to FAAC and the DPR came to the rescue.

“Luckily the DPR was in the position to step in and the marginal field revenues were used to fill the gap.

Sylva added: “Labour and the Federal Government are not on different pages. Even Labour understands but what we have agreed is that we need to have an alternative and the process of putting it in place is what is ongoing.”

The minister, who spoke to reporters in Abuja, said: “Subsidy removal will come with some pains but the question is, can we continue with petroleum subsidy as a country? If we cannot continue, what options do we have?

“I think the best is take out subsidy. From the government of ex-Military President Ibrahim Babangida in the 80s, it has defied all efforts to withdraw petrol subsidy. Diesel is now deregulated, Kerosine is now deregulated but petrol has defied deregulation. Should we continue with this subsidy?

“The Federal Government does not lack courage, our President does not lack political will.

“ Who is really benefitting from the subsidy? It is confusing. Some people are benefitting but certainly not the common man. Though it does not really benefit the common man, when you try to remove it, the common man comes out to defend it.

“ Now, can we carry on with subsidy if you consider the amount of money swallowed by subsidy? If you want to carry on with the subsidy, how do we get the money to fund it? The best way out is to take out subsidy because if we don’t, we will continue to beg the question,” he said.

“It was practiced for a few months, but when the prices began to move up, some people started threatening and we had to return to it.

“ This is a democracy and having deregulated for a few months, we had to step back because this government has listening ears,” he said.

“The price differential is a major incentive for smuggling and it is very difficult to police the borders. We must find a way out of it; if not, you will continue to keep your price down in Nigeria while the neighbouring countries will continue to feed fat on subsidised fuel from Nigeria,” he said.

“The PIB is fully on course. We’ve had many meetings with the National Assembly and other stakeholders. Although the National Assembly had earlier promised to pass it in April, but that did not work, I believe that the passage will not go beyond June,” he said.

He said the administration of President Buhari had attracted about $16.3billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the oil and gas sector.

He explained that the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline which had been on the drawing board will cost $21billion.