No more fuel subsidy from today- PPPRA

After months of
consultations and
controversies, the
Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory
Agency (PPPRA) today announced
the full withdrawal of subsidies
from Petrol (Premium Motor
Spirit).
According to a statement signed
by the agency's executive
secretary, Reginald Stanley, the
removal takes effect from today,
January 1, 2012.
It said in part that the agency
"...wishes to inform all
stakeholders of the
commencement of formal
removal of subsidy on Premium
Motor Spirit (PMS), in accordance
with the powers conferred on
the agency by the law
establishing it, in compliance
with Section 7 of PPPRA Act,
2004.
"By this announcement, the
downstream sub-sector of the
petroleum industry is hereby
deregulated for PMS. Service
providers in the sector are now
to procure products and sell
same in accordance with the
indicative benchmark price to be
published fortnightly and posted
on the PPPRA website.
"Petroleum products marketers
are to note that no one will be
paid subsidy on PMS discharges
after 1st January 2012."
The debate for the removal of
subsidy on petrol which was
introduced initially as a fallout
from a meeting of the Governor’s
Forum on June 21, 2011 as a
precondition to their payment of
the then newly approved
N18,000 minimum wage later
transformed into a federal
government-driven project upon
which it claims the survival of the
nation’s economy rests.
President Goodluck Jonathan had
presented the budget proposal
for 2012 without making
provision for the subsidy, further
heightening concerns that the
government was following
through on the plan to end the
subsidy even though the
government had assured the
Nigerian public that it was still
'consulting' stakeholders and had
not made a decision yet.
UK news agency REUTERS on
Thursday claimed the
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
was behind the push by
governments across West Africa
to remove petrol subsidies.
Ghana officially ended hers on
Thursday December 29, 2011.
Other countries which the report
said were under similar pressure
are Cameroon, Guinea and Chad.
Nigeria's Ministry of Finance
however denied the claims made
in the report.