The Federal Government has revealed that the funding provisions of the incremental fuel subsidy request in the 2022 Budget will cost N3 trillion.
This was revealed by Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing State House Correspondents after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC).
She added that Council had approved a proposed amendment to the 2022 Budget.
According to the Minister, only N443 billion had been provided for in the 2022 Budget meant to accommodate subsidy from January to June but taking the prevailing economic realities, both locally and globally, into consideration, Council had proposed a year-long provision for the subsidy.
She said the request was considered by Council, which directed the ministry to approach the National Assembly for an amendment to the fiscal framework as well as the Budget.
According to her, “We also presented to Council today a request for Council’s consideration to make additional funding provisions to enable us to meet incremental fuel subsidy request in the 2022 Budget. You’ll recall that in the 2022 Budget, as appropriated, we have made a provision of N443 billion for a subsidy for January to June.
“Having taken into account the current realities; increased hardship in the population, heightened inflation, and also that the measures that needed to be taken to enable a smoother exit from the fuel subsidy are not yet in place, it was agreed by Council that it is desirable to exit fuel subsidy.
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has presented to the ministry a request for N3 trillion as fuel subsidy for 2022. What this means is that we have to make an incremental provision of N2.557 trillion to be able to meet the subsidy requirement, which is averaging about N270 billion per month”.
