By Ismail Auwal
As the monthly subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol expires in June, the Federal Government intends to pay transportation workers subsidy while finalizing a decision on the N5,000 monthly payments to the poor.
This was stated by Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, during a public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Act in Abuja yesterday.
She said the proposal to pay N5,000 to poor Nigerians as transport subsidy is among the lists of policies FG is considering to reduce the effects of fuel subsidy removal.
“We have brought up a proposal that states that maybe one of the things we need to do is to provide a transport subsidy of N5,000 or any amount that may be later agreed for between 20 to 40 million people. There is a group that is meeting and chaired by the vice president, so the number is still being discussed and yet to be agreed upon.”
Among the proposals is also that the federal government will give a transport subsidy through some identified commercial transport workers.
“One other proposal that has been made, which is very key, is for us to identify, through the transport workers union, commercial vehicle drivers, get them registered and pass a subsidy through them using vouchers. However, there are several options that we are currently working on,” Zainab revealed.
While highlighting that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021 provides for the deregulation of all petroleum product prices, she noted that only kerosene and diesel prices have been deregulated.
Despite the revenue challenges in funding this year’s budget, the minister stated that the government would not cut its recurrent budget.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the N17.1 trillion budget into law on December 31, just two weeks after the bill was passed by the National Assembly. Buhari’s budget proposal for October 2021 was N16.3 trillion, but over N700 billion was added to it.
Further explaining, the minister stated that with N3.02tr spent on personnel in 2021, up from N12tr in 2021, there are plans to review federal government worker salaries and consolidate government agencies to cut costs while planning exit packages for workers.
“The part of it is to design exit packages that are realistic, remember we have a revenue challenge and everything that we do, we can’t put an exit package. But these are not easy decisions to make as they will affect people and their families,” the minister said.
