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The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and energy stakeholders have called for removal of subsidy on petroleum products to save money for investment in infrastructure.
They gave the advice at LCCI’s fuel subsidy awareness seminar on Tuesday in Lagos. Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, president, LCCI, noted that with a monthly payment of about N250 billion to subsidise fuel consumption, the sum of N3 trillion was provided in the 2022 Federal Government budget.
According to him, this additional expenditure against the projected revenue would lead to increased deficit financing significantly.
Olawale-Cole said the implication was that government would borrow more in 2022 to finance the deficit at a time when it was battling with revenue mobilisation challenges. He added that Nigeria’s decision to postpone the full deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry by 18 months may cost the country over N4 trillion in subsidy payments in 2022.
“In the face of this dilemma, the major concerns of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) are found in the policy inconsistencies that have tainted our policy environment. “The loss of required foreign direct investments (FDIs); and the likely weak implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
