The Minister if Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has disclosed that the Federal Government (FG) has suspended the planned petrol subsidy removal till further notice.
The Minister made this disclosure during a meeting held at the National Assembly in Abuja on Monday.
It was report earlier in a section of the media that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva said the President, Muhammadu Buhari is not in support of the removal of subsidy from the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol.
Sylva said “I will tell you categorically that at this moment, the complete removal of subsidy is not on our plate at all,”
He added that “The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not in support of removing subsidy at this time.”
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According to the Minister, part of the reason why the Federal Government is not thinking about removing fuel subsidy is because of the impact it will have on Nigerians.
He admitted that subsidy removal is a desirable policy direction that will have some impacts on the people and that is why the Federal Government is trying to work out some of those things.
He said, “Until those details are worked out properly with (the organised) labour, and with all the stakeholders in the sector, we will not remove the subsidy. At this moment, it is not on our plate, I can tell you that.
“This is something that needs to be worked out between the Federal Government and the states because this is a federation issue. We are working with the governors to see how we can continue with this policy direction of subsidising fuel for the foreseeable future.”
