Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, has disclosed that the Federal Government will soon remove subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, saying it only benefits some businessmen in the country.
Sylva stated this during a graduation and awards ceremony organised by Offshore Technology Institute, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Friday.
He said fuel subsidy does not benefit ordinary Nigerians.
“It is very unfortunate that if (there is) an increment in fuel pump price, (it) would have an impact on the marketplace and we are not happy about that. The President especially does not want to do it, but the economic realities are staring us in the face”, he said.
“Can we continue to support the subsidy, which is not necessarily benefiting the ordinary person, but is benefiting certain individuals who are businessmen in the country? I don’t want to identify the people that are benefiting.
“Subsidy is not directly benefitting Nigerians; the biggest contact with Nigerians is kerosene consumption used by local persons for cooking; as for diesel, it is used to transport food items and so on. But these have been deregulated for a long time now.”
The minister also said because PMS proponents are the most vocal, they continue to kick against deregulation “but we are going to get there.”
“Right now, we are still in discussion with stakeholders, so we have decided to go on with subsidy for some time, until we are able to conclude our discussions with the stakeholders and announce the policy direction,” Sylva added.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), late in April, said there is no plan to increase the pump price of petrol, for the month of May