PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has released the sum of N407.076 billion for the settlement of subsidy claims by petroleum products importer, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, confirmed on Wednesday.
Subsidy arrears have been at the core of the recent scarcity of petrol across the country as petrol marketers had shrunk from importation of the products unless they were paid their outstandings.
According to Adeosun, the President has directed that payments be made immediately in order to bring to a quick end the lingering fuel crisis.
A statement by the Director of Press in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Marshall Gundu, reads in part, “The minister also said that despite dwindling revenues, the government is committed to ensuring continuous availability of fuel to Nigerians. The payments include arrears from the 2014 financial year as well as payments for the current year. It is expected that the recipients would ensure adequate supply of fuel to end the persistent fuel shortage in the nation.
“Details of the approved payments under the subsidy scheme will be published in the national dailies as has been the practice,” the statement added.
Enwegbara argued that his position and advice to World Bank was hinged on his understanding that even in Europe and the most advanced nations in the West, including the United States which houses the World Bank, there exist one form of subsidy or the other.
According to Enweagbara, “I’ve always said it that the problem with fuel subsidy is not that the subsidy is bad in itself. After all, not only do governments in EU, U.S. and most other OECD countries spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually subsidising agriculture so as to make food always readily and cheaply available.”
They also go as far as subsidising many social amenities, including electricity, winter heaters, and telephone subscriptions both for the poor and for businesses in an effort to make local businesses more competitive.
“That is why I strongly believe that there will always be one form of subsidy or another since to move petroleum products from either the refineries or depots to remote and distant parts of the country so as to maintain uniform pump price across the country, government should subsidise the cost of transporting fuel to distant fuel stations.”
