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Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has thrown its weight behind the planned total removal of fuel subsidy from June 2023 by the federal government.
However, IPMAN has said that the removal of fuel subsidy should happened when the nation’s four refineries have been fixed to operate at optimum capacity.
Chairman of IPMAN Chairman in Rivers State, Dr. Joseph Obele, speaking to newsmen in Eleme, explained that fuel subsidy removal will end product scarcity in the country.
Obele lamented that federal government was spending so much on subsidizing petrol and urged the government to channel such spendings on other social programmes in the country, such as health and agriculture.
He also accused the federal government of paying lip service over the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.
“In the 2023 budget, the budget provision for fuel subsidy ends by June, probably by July fuel subsidy will be fully removed.
“Few months to the end of fuel subsidy, fuel prices will fluctuate but three to four month later, it will be balanced.
“I charged Nigerians to see that we all support the removal of fuel subsidy. Last year 2022 alone, we spent over N9trilion on fuel subsidy, out of N16trillion that was total budget for 2022, on one single commodity.
“We can subsidized education, agriculture and food but not fuel. So we in IPMAN, we support the removal of fuel subsidy but it should be at the right time.
This article was originally posted at sweetcrudereports.com
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