TheCable

Senate President Bukola Saraki says for the sake of transparency, the executive should send a supplementary budget for fuel subsidy payments.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had said the landing cost of petrol is N171 as against the official retail price of N145.

This implies that the corporation pays N40.70 as subsidy on every litre of petrol imported into the country in the bid to retain the retail price.

Speaking after the senate passed the 2018 budget on Wednesday, Saraki said fuel subsidy is an important issue that must be addressed.

“In the area that we could not address, which is the issue of fuel subsidy, I appeal to the executive to look into this for the interest of transparency,” he said.

“Where an expenditure close to over N1 trillion must be captured in the budget and when the supplementary comes, the hope is that the executive does something about it. It is an important issue and must be addressed.

“Now that the crude oil price is up to $80, a lot of Nigerians are expecting to see our excess crude reserve account to be on a rise but if money is being used for subsidy, it will be difficult to explain. That is why it is important that we capture the subsidy into the budget.”

The senate president explained that the budget was increased from N8.6 trillion to N9.1 trillion because “both the executive and the legislature have seen areas where there’s need for intervention”.