When it comes to the thorny subject of whether the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government should continue paying for subsidies on petrol or allow market forces to determine the pump price of the product, there is no clear consensus, it appears.
The federal government has repeatedly announced that it is ending a corruption-riddled subsidy regime, where the difference in the landing cost and retail price of the product is offset by Abuja.
The federal government doles out close to a trillion Naira on petrol subsidies annually, an amount government officials argue should be used to equip schools, hospitals or erect critical infrastructure.
Ending the subsidy regime forever
In April, Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, disclosed that the subsidy regime will be gone forever and that Nigerians will henceforth pay the market price for the product.
“There is no subsidy and it is zero forever, going forward there will be no resort to either subsidy or under recovery of any nature.
NNPC will play in the marketplace, it will just be another marketer in the space. But we will be there for the country to sustain security of supply at market price,” Kyari said.
On Wednesday, September 2, 2020, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) announced that the new pump price of petrol will be N151 from a previous high of N145, in line with the government’s new deregulation policy.
Social media poll result
Some social media users have criticized the price hike, amid the damage to the economy by the coronavirus outbreak, multiple taxation and a hike in electricity tariff.
When Khorgist asked our social media audience about whether the federal government should revert to subsidizing petrol price or allow demand and supply to determine the pump price of the product, the outcome turned out too close to call.
No comments:
We have Zero Tolerance to Spam. Chessy Comments and Comments with Links will be deleted immediately upon our review.
Post a Comment