FG Have Been Borrowing To Pay Subsidy… Finance Minister

The Finance minister, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has revealed that the federal government have been borrowing to pay for fuel subsidy.

Mrs. Zainab, who made this known at the public presentation of the 2023 budget’s specifics in Abuja, said:

“Fuel subsidy cost was a very high one; We have been funding it from borrowing.”

She stated that the 18-month extension announced in early 2022 will allow the fuel subsidy to “stay up to mid-2023.”

Only N3.36 trillion has been allocated in this regard for the PMS subsidy.

The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari first stated that subsidy would stop in July 2022, but it later reversed course after labor threatened to hold nationwide protest.

Party members and some officials of the administration were said to have convinced President Buhari that the decision will negatively affect his public rating and that of the ruling party and this forced the government to later announce an extension of the subsidy regime to lapse in June this year, one month after leaving office.

The minister also said the reconciliation between the ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, is still ongoing to determine crude oil revenues and what should accrue to the federation account.