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Subsidy Removal: FG To Convert Petrol-Powered Cars To Gas October
The federal government has revealed its plans to convert petrol-powered cars to gas-powered as this will be cheaper, cleaner and largely cushion the effects of the total subsidy removal.
This, is as it further added that the full deregulation of the down stream sector will fetch in over ₦1 trillion annually which would be deployed to fund other critical sectors of the economy.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, made the revelation to journalists during an interview in Abuja, Leadership reports.
“It is time for Nigerians to face reality and do the right thing. What is deregulation going to do? It is going to free up a lot more money. At least from the very beginning it will save us up to a trillion and more every year. Already, we have taken off the budgetary provision for subsidy, which is about N500 billion in the budget. Also, we have taken
off the excess forex price that special rate that was given to NNPC which also came at a cost,” he said.
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“I believe that this discussion around subsidy has been a vexed issue that has captured the imagination of this country for a long time now. Successive administrations have attempted to deregulate. But sometimes, some administrations lacked the political will and at other times, the time was not good for it. And why did I say the time was not good for it? Does that imply the time is good for it now? The problem around deregulation is that people must understand first, that what we are talking about is a derivative of crude oil. It is refined from crude oil. Therefore, it has a direct relationship with the price of crude oil. If the price of crude oil goes up, then you expect that it would reflect in the price of the derivative,” he added.