The presidency has said that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has no plans to reintroduce any form of fuel subsidy or reverse the deregulation policy.
The clarification follows insinuations in some sections of the media that the Federal Government may temporarily be reintroducing fuel subsidy in the face of the increase in the landing cost of the product and skyrocketing price due to the free fall of the naira in the parallel market.
This disclosure is contained in a tweet post issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Tope Ajayi, on his official Twitter account on Tuesday, August 15, 2023, where he stated that there is no condition to support fuel price increase at this time.
What the Presidential media aide is saying
- Ajayi said, “There is no plan to reintroduce any form of fuel subsidy. There is no condition to support any increase in prices at this time. President Tinubu is convinced based on information before him that we can maintain current pricing without reversing the current deregulation policy by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream Petroleum sector.”
This is also coming less than 24 hours after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said that it is not planning to increase fuel pump prices at its retail stations.
The oil firm in its statement on its Twitter account said,
- “Dear esteemed customers, we at NNPC Retail value your patronage, and we do not have the intention to increase our PMS pump prices as widely speculated. Please buy the best quality products at the most affordable prices at our NNPC Retail Stations nationwide.”
Also, a few hours ago, President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, noted that the market has been deregulated and will remain so.
He emphasized that government will address the inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum subsectors to maintain prices where they are without having to resort to a reversal of the administration’s policy in the petroleum industry.
The presidential aide also noted that the daily consumption of fuel had dropped from 67 million litres to 46 million litres following the removal of the subsidy.
What you should know
Recall that yesterday, there were reports that the oil marketers had hinted at plans to increase the pump price of petrol from the present rate to between N680 per litre and N720 per litre in the coming weeks should the dollar continue to trade between N910 and N950 per litre at the parallel market.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) thereafter threatened to proceed on a total, comprehensive and indefinite nationwide shutdown of the country if there is another increase in the pump price of petrol from the existing N617 per litre, which it described as illegal.
