Mr Chinedu Okonkwo, National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has disclosed that the federal government raked in N400 billion due to fuel subsidy removal in the last 30 days.
We reported that President Bola Tinubu declared that there would no longer be a petroleum subsidy regime as the current 2023 budget he glimpsed does not contain it.
Tinubu during his inauguration stated that funds for subsidies will be diverted to other things like public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs.
In a meeting with oil and gas operators in February, Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, stated that the country spends N400 billion monthly on fuel subsidies.
Speaking on the state of the sector owing to the removal of the subsidy and changes in the country's foreign exchange market, Okonkwo told Daily Post that the deregulation has a long time impact.
According to him, the development would either lead to an increase in fuel price or a decrease depending on the market-determined price of forex.
He added that the impact on the masses would gradually decrease by introducing Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, into the sector.
"You know how much the government is spending monthly on fuel subsidies payment, but that expenditure to the tune of dollars or Naira will be saved.
"The government has indeed reduced spending on fuel subsidies, though the thing is biting, so we have drafted an alternative in Compressed Natural Gas, CNG," he said.
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