FG not contemplating subsidy removal – Minister

TIMIPRE SYLVA, THE MINISTER OF STATE for petroleum, has said the federal government is not in anyway contemplating to remove subsidy, even as he revealed that crude oil has been discovered in commercial quantity in Bauchi State.

Sylva disclosed this yesterday while briefing the Joint National Assembly Committees on Petroleum Resources (upstream) on 2019 budget performance and the proposed 2020 budover get.

He said while the subsidy might not be very clearly captured in the 2020 budget, he assured Nigerians that provision was made for fuel subsidy.

Sylva stated: “I want to state that this government is not about to remove subsidy because it is difficult. We believe that as a government, our people are already going through a lot of suffering, and we cannot, as a responsible government, heap the issue of petroleum price hike or removal of subsidy on Nigerians. So it is not on the table at all. We are just looking at how we can manage it. It may not be clearly captured but I can assure you that it is there. If you look very carefully, you will see it.

“We also believe that the consumption that is being posted on the daily basis doesn’t represent the actual consumption of the petroleum product in this country. We don’t believe that Nigerians are consuming over 60 million litres a day; there is a lot of smuggling and because the petroleum product is cheaper in Nigeria, a lot of our neighbouring countries are taking advantage of the cheaper process in Nigeria.

“So Nigeria is now almost subsidising half of Africa which is very difficult for us to do. And now, you can see the government doing something about controlling some of these leakages, and once those leakages are controlled, we believe that the subsidy can be at least bearable.”