The House of Representatives on Thursday said the planned removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government was premature.
It urged government to source for other sources of revenue other than expected proceeds from the proposed subsidy removal as part of financing items for expected budget deficit.?
President Goodluck Jonathan had on Oct. 4, submitted the 2012-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the House of Representatives.
The major component of the policy as contained in the document was the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012 which according to the executive, is expected to save N1.2 trillion for the country.
This resolution was sequel to the adoption of the report of the Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation, Legislative Budget and Research and National Planning and Economic Development of the 2012-2015 MTEF.
Leading the debate, Rep. John Enoh (PDP-Cross River) , the chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, said the committee considered critical elements of the proposal before taking a decision.
He said that it was important for the House to approve the document to allow the executive carry out its duties.
It approved the exchange rate of N155 to the dollar as against the N153 originally presented.
The House also approved a benchmark price of crude oil of 70 dollar as against the 75 dollar contained in the document.
It called on the Ministry of Finance to furnish it with comprehensive information on the volume of capital projects to be funded through Private Public Partnership (PPP) before the submission of the 2012 budget proposal.
It further urged government to restrict PPP agreements to specialised areas and continue with social responsibility in the process.
According to the report, government should limit the policy to a three-year period of 2012-2014 as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.
Rep. Uzo Azubuike (PDP-Abia), the chairman of House Committee on Public Petitions, said that the decision taken by the House was in the best interest of Nigerians.
He said that the House could not act on speculative policy since the executive had not discussed it officially with members.
“We will not want to build our budget for 2012 through 2015 on speculative policy,’’ he said.??????????????????
According to him, the removal of fuel subsidy by government will bring untold hardship to Nigerians.
The lawmaker maintained that all refineries in the country must work in full capacity before government could think of fuel subsidy removal.
Rep. Segun Odebunmi (ACN-Oyo) who aligned his views with that of Azubuike, said that the issue of fuel subsidy was a policy matter that was not discussed with members of the House.
He cautioned that government should not plan its budget based on the planned removal of fuel subsidy.
He said that the House took a good decision to reject it for now.