Fuel price increase unavoidable — FG Saved N1trn from deregulation in 6 months

The Federal Government has said the increase in pump price of petrol is inevitable even as it disclosed that N1 trillion was saved from deregulation in six months.

Fuel price on Wednesday increased from N148 to N161.56 by retailers, the third of such an increase in three months.

But speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said the fuel price was increased because the international crude oil price now determined pump price.

Sylva said the government deregulated the downstream sector to save the country from going bankrupt as a result of subsidy payment.

The minister said the rich were the only ones benefiting from subsidy payment to the detriment of the poor hence the removal.

‘’We can’t afford to continue paying subsidies. We decided it was high to deregulate the sector to save huge subsidy payment benefitting only a few Nigerians. Government had

the

local stood back from importing petroleum products, we had left that open. Through that we have been able to save N1 trillion since we started the deregulation in March.”

He stated that the N1trn saved from deregulation would be used on capital projects across the country next year.

“It is not right to blame the government for the increase because we are no longer fixing prices for the product. The price is determined by the crude oil price at the international market.”

He however said a number of alternatives were being planned to cushion the effect of price increase on Nigerians.

“Any marketer that fails to upgrade would not have its licence renewed,” he said. He revealed efforts to convert vehicles from petrol to gas using ones.

On the oil production cut as agreed by members of Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC), Sylva said Nigeria had reduced its daily crude oil production to 1.412 million barrels per day, down from 2m barrels.