The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, has said that the Federal Government spent N222.1billion on fuel subsidy from January to July this year.
Mrs Daniel-Nwaobia, told the House of Representatives panel investigating the implementation of the capital component of this year’s budget, that a supplementary budget would be sent to the National Assembly to cover what has been spent so far.
She defended the extra-budgetary spending, saying it was spent under Emergency Intervention (Fuel Subsidy Crisis) to end the eight-month long fuel scarcity which started in December last year and ended in July this year.
She also said Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) was depleted to about $4billion by the end of last year and $2.08billion as at June this year due to the drop in oil revenue and payment of petroleum subsidies.
She said the drop in oil prices also affected Federal Account Allocation Committee’s (FAAC’s) distribution.