The National Economic Council (NEC) has revealed that no decision has been reached on the issue of fuel subsidy removal.
Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo, while responding to State House correspondents after the NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, revealed that NEC is still deliberating on the issue of fuel subsidy removal.
“There was an ad hoc committee set up by NEC and headed by Gov. Nasir El-Rufai that included members of the executive arm of government and worked on recommendations as to what we should do about the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) locally.
“Because as you realise, as it has been told us, the cost of PMS in Nigeria today is about N162 for a litre whereas every other country surrounding Nigeria is selling the product at more than 100 per cent of the cost in Nigeria.
“The country, as at last year, spent in excess of …; we must have the exact figures — but we must have spent almost N2 trillion subsidising petroleum products.
“That is money that could have gone into building roads; money that could have gone into healthcare and education.
“So, for NEC, the argument has been put out; should we continue this regime of spending money that we do not have to subsidise the living standard of mostly those who have vehicles.’’
He said that when NEC looked at some of the analysis last year, it realised that less than one-third of the states of the country consumed two-third of the subsidy.
According to him, the issue of equity also comes up.
“All of these findings were presented to NEC and NEC has deliberations still ongoing.
“So, NEC has not come up with any decision yet and I think has also been made to the president,’’ he said.
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