Nigeria’s finances drowning over fuel subsidy payments says Rep Member, Garba
The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption, Shehu Garba has said Nigerian government finances are drowning due to fuel subsidy payments.
Garba made this disclosure in a Channelstv interview monitored by DAILY POST on Thursday, explaining the implications of petrol and diesel prices on Nigerians.
He also mentioned that access to foreign exchange is a challenge to the price of fuel.
He advocated that the federal government should focus on revitalizing Nigeria’s refineries to strengthen the Naira.
Garba said except the oil and gas industry is entirely liberalized, the problem of pricing, theft and subsidy burden will linger.
According to him, “The Price of Petrol is not in secrecy, the issue is what source of foreign exchange suppliers get, are they getting it from the official source? The prices template is based on official sources. These issues will continue to linger until the market is liberalized; we can’t escape it. The issue we are facing, which nobody is talking about, is that government finances have run aground. The subsidy claims have taken almost 100 percent of Government oil revenue”, he stated.
