Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress, has stated that, if elected in the elections held next year, his administration will gradually eliminate fuel subsidies.
In addition to gradually eliminating gasoline subsidies, he pledged to speed up the Petroleum Industry Act’s implementation and to put in place additional beneficial measures to entice investment in Deepwater assets within six months.
These were included in his manifesto, which Symbol NewsAlert exclusively got on Friday.
The withdrawal of the gasoline subsidy was described as an explosive subject by representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
He claims that if I am elected, I would completely deregulate the downstream industry and make sure that the capacity of the nearby refineries is sufficient to meet the needs of domestic consumption.
The fundamental social contract between the government and the populace will be maintained while we gradually eliminate the fuel subsidy, he declared. We achieve this by allocating the funds that would have been used for the subsidy to fund specific infrastructure, agricultural, and social welfare projects, such as funding for education and healthcare, the drilling of boreholes, and the construction of roads. The money is used more effectively and immediately to address critical social and economic needs in this way.
Under our proposed strategy, public infrastructure will be significantly expanded, improving public well-being while simultaneously reducing the price effects of deregulation.
“Deregulation and the elimination of subsidies, however, are only a portion of the solution. We will concentrate on restoring the nation’s refineries and use the joint venture partnership agreements put in place by other top oil-producing nations and international petrochemical companies as a model in order to further boost our refining capacity.
“We will expedite the Petroleum Industry Act’s implementation and implement favorable policies to stimulate investment in the deep-water assets,” he continued. “For example, we’ll encourage negotiations regarding signature bonus payment and/or deferral of the payment post-development, royalty reliefs, among other things.”
Last year, the administration of President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (Retd) announced that it will end the fuel subsidy in response to recommendations from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Instead, the government announced that roughly 40 million destitute Nigerians will get N5,000 per month as a transportation allowance.
According to the World Bank’s forecast, Nigeria will spend around N4 trillion on fuel subsidies in 2022. However, according to oil marketers, if crude oil prices continue to rise, that figure might reach N6 trillion.
It was reported on January 25, 2022, that the federal government wanted to add another 18 months to the implementation term for subsidy elimination.
Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, made this announcement at a special briefing on gasoline subsidies that the Presidential Communication Team organized at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
In accordance with current economic realities, he claims that the extension will provide all stakeholders enough time to make sure that the implementation is carried out in a way that ensures the required procedures are in place to mitigate the effect of the elimination of the PMS subsidy.
Additionally on March 14, 2022, Symbol NewsAlert writes that government and organized labor are still in talks about the subsidy removal.
The withdrawal of the gasoline subsidy, according to representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, was an explosive decision.
This, they said had made the government engage in negotiations with the organised labour on the matter despite the persistent rise in the amount being spent on subsidy amidst the recent increase in global crude oil prices.