Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo, has disclosed that the National Economic Council (NEC) is still deliberating on recommendations by the ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy removal.
Obaseki, who said this on Thursday at the end of the NEC’s meeting in Abuja, added that recommendations may have been made to President muhammadu Buhari.
The governor said: “As you all know and aware, the issue of subsidy has been one matter that NEC has deliberated on, for more than a year now,”
“There was an ad-hoc committee, which was set up by NEC headed by Governor El-Rufai that included members of the executive arm of government that worked on recommendations as to what we should do about the costs of PMS locally because as you realise, as has been told us, the cost of PMS in Nigeria today is about N162 per litre.
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“Whereas every other country surrounding Nigeria is selling the same product at more than 100% of the cost in Nigeria.
“As for NEC, the arguments remain. Should we continue this regime of spending money we do not have to subsidise the living standards of only mostly those who have vehicles? And when NEC looked at some of the analyses last year, we then realised that less than one-third of the states of this country consume two-thirds of the subsidy.
“The issue of equity also came up. All of these findings were presented to NEC, and NEC has had several deliberations. And the deliberations are still ongoing. So, no, NEC has not come up with any decision yet. I think recommendations have also been made to the President. That is what I am aware has transpired so far.”
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He added: “Well, I’ll put it very succinctly. As at last year, NNPC was supposed to contribute N200 billion a month to FAAC for distribution to the states,”
“But because of the payment of subsidy, NNPC was unable to put that money into FAAC for distribution, which means less money going to the States and less money going to the federal government.
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