A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kenneth Okonkwo, has described the Federal Government’s fuel discount policy as an “imported-related subsidy’ programme.
Okonkwo, a spokesman for the ADC presidential campaign, said this on Sunday when he was interviewed on Inside Sources, which aired on Channels Television.
“Have you noticed the danger in their own purported subsidy? They want to return to the corrupt import-related subsidy that they were operating.
“NNPC is not producing any one litre of refined fuel in Nigeria. So the price they are reducing is the price of imported fuel by NNPC,” the ADC chieftain said.
“They want to reintroduce the corrupt subsidy that they were operating. If you listen to Taiwo [Minister of Finance], Taiwo said once, you go into that subsidy, you will see people now, when it is 15 million litres, they will say 70 million litres, and that is the subsidy they want to go in now to start saying that whatever cost they gave to NNPC; trust NNPC, they will tell you the profit they would have made is trillions of naira,” Okonkwo said.
“When you do that import-related subsidy, you are now subsidising the refinery outside the country that is producing it. You are now subsidizing employment overseas. You are now encouraging the shipping that will bring in the refined product, and most probably it is still the shipping that took our crude to that refinery and is bringing it back, and is part of what is contributing to the high cost of fuel.
“Why do you not just give the crude directly to Dangote, and Dangote will refine it and give it directly to Nigerians?”
Okonkwo’s comment came days after the Federal Government announced a 30-day fuel discount policy as part of measures to cushion the impact of rising prices for the essential commodity.
However, the opposition has condemned the policy, describing it as a return of subsidy via the backdoor.
The Federal Government has rejected claims that NNPC Retail Limited’s fuel price discount amounts to the return of petrol subsidy, saying no public funds are being used to finance the reduction.
According to the Federal Government, the discount applies to petrol dispensed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)
Oyedele, who announced, said under the NNPCL arrangement, the company bears the cost via a reduced retail price rather than government funding.
He said the price discount does not amount to a return on subsidy.
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