A lot has been said in recent times about the removal of petroleum product subsidy. A critical look at the subject will reveal who the true "Beneficiaries" are.

Let's start with the SMUGGLERS. These individuals buy PMS from Nigeria at N65, ferry this product a few kms across the Nigerian border and voila!!! The money doubles automatically. PMS sells for about N150 per litre in every other country around Nigeria. This becomes a naturally attractive market with ROI of over 100%. The problem this creates is an artificial explosion of local demand. We keep importing and subsidising to meet our needs and these folks keep draining us to serve our neighbors. The government keeps trying to meet our needs and imports more to avoid shortages. In the process, government has to spend more to guarantee supply. This has become even more evident with the current government's drive to ensure adequacy of supply.

The first line of defense against this "trade" would be to tighten the borders but then corruption in customs and the security agencies stares us right in the face. The next line of action is to "kill" the market by removing the price gradient. I.e. Removing the subsidy. This is what Nigerians have kicked against.

The other group of individuals are those marketers who inflate product volumes. Contrary to the view of our senators who recently rolled out a list of so called "beneficiaries", the marketers ordinarily have absolutely nothing to gain from the subsidy. They are entitled to their margin of about N12 per litre. Subsidy paid is to bring down price at which Nigerians get the product from them and not to increase their margin. The problem only arises when they inflate the volumes. But then can we prove that this actually happens on a large scale? This is another subject of discussion. In order to establish the fact, we have to take a critical look at the modus operandi of the importers and general port operations.

What about the average Nigerian? Do we really gain from fuel subsidy? The answer is also a resounding YES! BUT, the question is; how much is this gain worth? Our individual pockets feel the impact of the subsidy as many have rightly argued (in terms of transport costs, commodity prices, and all other related things) but the nation as a whole staggers under the heavy load of subsidy. We may be able to get by now and possibly in the next few years but can our economy survive the shocks associated with oil price volatility?

From the foregoing, I strongly believe we need to probe a bit further into the subsidy game. Let's seek to understand the situation better and truly seek "a better deal" than the current subsidy which is clearly unsustainable. Let us come together and deliberate on how to ensure a more efficient use of our funds.

For the economists and statisticians in the house, you can find some interesting economic indicators from this site: www.tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/pump-price-for-gasoline-us-dollar-per-liter-wb-data.html

Also look at the indicators for other countries by clicking the link "view more countries". There is a lot of great info to be gathered from this site. 

Source: efisher

Subsidy indeed need to go.
But we the people dont want to make any compromise for the future. The same 'poor' that we are basing our resistance on are the ones that will pay the price tomorrow.

No is the time to remove the subsidy - a president who is not interested in re-election. 'Tomorrow' might be more difficult.
Nuff said.

If only GEJ had the balls to nationalise the oil indstry and have it managed by competent uncorruptable individuals.

^ Nationalization of the oil industry is already in progress. Shell / Total / Agip recently sold their interests in OMLs 26 and 42 to a consortium of indigenous companies. NPDC will now jointly operate the fields unlike before now when Shell was the sole operator. This is a first step in a very long process of having the NOC run all or most of the "easy" oil fields. The PIB is another cookie in the oven that will enable us exploit our resources more profitably. Your 2nd concern about having competent and incorruptible people run the industry truly calls for concern. I can only guess that we are doing something about that also.

Just keeping my holy fingers crossed.

Good Article,
The problem is not subsidy, its corruption, We can remove all the subsidy we want but that corruption will still affect the so called infrastural development.
OBJ spend $16 billion on power yet no one has asked him to give a break down of how the money was spent,
Until government officials account for every 1 naira spent, Nigeria will not change
My 2 cents kobo

@op,

its true subsidy has to be removed but for me, what's important is the timing more than the removal.
I feel the Government should try to build refineries that will be fully operational to augment for importations before removing subsidy.
Moneys spent on subsidy so far is enough to have gotten us at least 30 refineries and we wont have any need to keep importing and spending so much on subsidy.

What are you saying, if subsidy has to be removed then there are other measures that have to be put in place else the aim of removing the subsidy will be totally defeated and instead cause more hardship to the Nigerian masses. If the Nigerian masses can be assured that 95% of the fuel (petrol and AGO) that will be consumed will be refined in Nigeria, thereby ensuring that our refineries work at optimum capacity in other words creating employment for the teeming youths directly and indirectly. then I will support subsidy removal. but until the they should tighten the borders if only diversion of petroleum product is the only reason that can be cited for subsidy removal.

@Op

I dont agree when you say the masses benefit from fuel subsidy. Get this scenario. If you do a job for me and I am supposed to pay youu 10k and I then decide to take part of the 10k, say 4k, to buy you a shirt and I give you the remaining 6k, is that an extra benefit to you? Think.

The money that is used for subsidy is not free money. There is nothing like free money in economics. It is money meant for something else. Roads, Hospitals, etc. When you put it into fuel subsidy, it means when someone goes to the hospital, there is a drug or equipment that should have been available that will not be available. There is no vaccum in life.

The masses do not benefit from fuel subsidy. What you call benefit is their money from other things taken and used to make fuel cheap for them.

Make power stable so we only have to think about fueling our cars,

stpat1:

What are you saying, if subsidy has to be removed then there are other measures that have to be put in place else the aim of removing the subsidy will be totally defeated and instead cause more hardship to the Nigerian masses. If the Nigerian masses can be assured that 95% of the fuel (petrol and AGO) that will be consumed will be refined in Nigeria, thereby ensuring that our refineries work at optimum capacity in other words creating employment for the teeming youths directly and indirectly. then I will support subsidy removal. but until the they should tighten the borders if only diversion of petroleum product is the only reason that can be cited for subsidy removal.

Some of you forget some basic facts. The government does not have to guarantee this or that. There are many business men and companies willing to come in and do business and create competition. All they need is liberalisation and policies to guide it. Just open the doors and you will see over one hundred companies ready to open refineries and fight for a share of the business. The end result is simple. Prices willl go down and the product will be available everywhere. Those who keep saying fuel will sell at 150k only show they know nothing about business. Competition will always drive prices down. Its the simple law of supply and demand. The phone industry is a very clear example

The problem with nigeria is the high level of ignorance among the citizenry. Due to this it is easy for the rich to brainwash the hoi polloi thus making their selfish opinion seem a public one. Removal of oil subsidy will be more beneficial to us than its retention. I don talk finish

Sun of god:

If only GEJ had the balls to nationalise the oil indstry and have it managed by competent uncorruptable individuals.

efisher:

^ Nationalization of the oil industry is already in progress. Shell / Total / Agip recently sold their interests in OMLs 26 and 42 to a consortium of indigenous companies. NPDC will now jointly operate the fields unlike before now when Shell was the sole operator. This is a first step in a very long process of having the NOC run all or most of the "easy" oil fields. The PIB is another cookie in the oven that will enable us exploit our resources more profitably. Your 2nd concern about having competent and incorruptible people run the industry truly calls for concern. I can only guess that we are doing something about that also.

We are talking of removal (or retention) of subsidy on imported refined Petroleum product and you're talking about 'nationalizing the NOCs' whose involvement is almost 100% with upstream crude oil. What has that got to do with fuel subsidy?
Please try and put forward statements that show your level of education o!

A-ZeD:

Good Article,
The problem is not subsidy, its corruption, We can remove all the subsidy we want but that corruption will still affect the so called infrastural development.
OBJ spend $16 billion on power yet no one has asked him to give a break down of how the money was spent,
Until government officials account for every 1 naira spent, Nigeria will not change
My 2 cents kobo

EXACTLY!

The Federal Government established NDDC with the purpose of massive infrastructural development. Beaf can tell you how much infrastructural renaissance has been wrought by tem.
$20 billion Excess Crude Account cash shared out by GEJ to the states with the promise that the funds will be used for massive development. Show me the impact on the common man.


All the FEderal Government will do is massively increase the weight on the common man while making promises of benefits in other areas (which are not likely to materialize).

All these debates don dey too much abeg, make them kuku remove  am make person hear word.

Nonsense. Tell us what GEJ did with all the excess crude account money Obj left in the account? About 70 billion dollars. He just serviced his ambition to become president. You people think we have not been there before? I learnt from an unnamed source that EFCC boss Waziri was removed because she refused to back down on persecuting some drug dealers that were caught and they were VP Namadi's boys. How is this any different from Atiku and the Vishwani brothers? Different drinks, same brew.

@joey,I dey feel you,in fact I don talk so tey saliva don dry for mouth finish.if we have more refineries,working at full capacity,price will be lesser than even N65/ltr(inclusive of kero,diesel,jetA1 fuel,etc) and there won't be need for subsidy:removal or addition.
GEJ and his cabinet knows what to do but pretends they do not.Nigerians govt is all about LOOTING before you're edged out from the juicy post.There's hardly any of our past leaders who had voluntarily wanted to live once their time is up.cos there is BIGGGGGGGGGG money in the oil industry.if Nigeria do not have any other means of natural resources,the oil is more than enuff to get us good,if not among the best medical care with very little to pay for it.
Those bastards won't build refineries,NO,they will always seek for more subtle means of enriching themselves and their ilks.

Like a wave, everyone in Nigeria except for those with spiritual immunity and God's divine guidance would all be affected by the plague all around the country.
Like the days of Pharaoh, Nigeria has just begun experiencing plagues of social disaster, moral degeneration and economic hardship. No scientific investigation, economic restructuring or mass award of inflated contracts can solve it to any least expected level.
I am however amazed and deeply hurt with comments from my co-youths here on Nairaland, i wonder if any messiah can succeed in this country for now, 5 years at least, cos the present youth are nearly empty. The little virtues and intelligence these present youths have with them are being forcefully sustained by the religious houses they visit and the prophet they look up to.

Your leaders spend your money as if its a free-resource and they would still complain of lack of funds. I am not willing to draw any mortal man into any political arguments or justifications because its not what a 1000 paged journal can explain.
National ID cards contracts was awarded for =N= Billions - Its now a failure, no ID card replacement, No Updated National Database of Citizens, No database of contact addresses etc. You walk up to the center, give the any name you so wish and submit an address you can lazily think of.
Voters Registration Contract was awarded for =N= Billions - Its now a failure. No means of valid verification, No permanent Voters card to the registered masses, No consequences for those who spit at the verdicts, No compact database of voters. When the much hyped biometrics failed them, they quickly reversed to manual which was baseless.
I can continue to mention how your governments have spent Trillions of Naira on contracts and projects which have all turned into huge scams
Last year, Lagos-Ibadan express way was patched and maintained by Bi-Courtney for yet another =N= Billions, you might want to take that route now and see the roads requiring another =N= Billion contract for maintenance.

In a nut shell, i am a Nigerian, 1 out of 150 Million and i can rightly say the removal of subsidy :
would have grave, dying effect on about 105 Million Nigerians
would have average effects on about 39 Million
have little effect on about 5 Million
and No noticeable effect on the rest  1 Million Nigerians.

So whose interest should it be meant for ? The Poorly Many or the Richly Few ?

For those who wants simple analysis : When fuel subsidy is removed, the following would likely occur everyday,

> Biro turns =N= 30
> 35cl Coke turns =N= 80, 50cl Coke turns =N= 120
> COT from Banks turns =N=10
> Bike from Ikeja Under Bridge to Allen Junction Turns =N= 120
> School fees adds up about 40%
> Pure Water turns =N= 10 in urban areas and =N= 15 in Rurals
> Lagos to Ibadan via public transit turns =N= 1,500
> Punch Newspaper Turns =N= 250
> A simple T-Shirt Turns =N= 2,000
> A plate of Rice moves from =N= 200 in Ikeja to =N= 350
> All foodstuff adds up about 50%
> ETC including EVERYTHING

Please Note that the President, Governors, Senators , Reps, Councilors, Traditional Rulers, Pastors, Imams, Musicians, Media People, Militants [/b]and other [b]Strong Oppressing Groups would not be among the 105 Millions Nigerians who would sweat their lives out to go through the day by day hardships.

I wonder, just wonder what incentives are on the way to justify a life full of hardship, frustration and murmur.

Only one prayer i pray everyday, that i still have reason(s) to stay and live in my Country.

snakova:

Nonsense. Tell us what GEJ did with all the excess crude account money Obj left in the account? About 70 billion dollars. He just serviced his ambition to become president. You people think we have not been there before? I learnt from an unnamed source that EFCC boss Waziri was removed because she refused to back down on persecuting some drug dealers that were caught and they were VP Namadi's boys. How is this any different from Atiku and the Vishwani brothers? Different drinks, same brew.

People like you will believe anything. We do  have corrupt politicians but most of what some of you say is way way untrue. The Vice president of a country will never stoop so low to get involved with drug traffiking. If he really wants to help his boys. there are many avenues to do it. Many contracts that he can influence for them. You should be realistic when you make accusations.

Tell me which is easier, for GEJ to connive with the oil importers to siphone money or to allow the money enter the system and then try to syphone it. Dont you see that if he is looking for money all he needs do is connive with the fuel importers. I guess it didnt occur to you

First of all it is an established fact that subsidy on fuel is a direct result of
bad leadership, that has over the years occupied the commanding heights
of our polity. If concerted efforts have been made to ensure that we stretch our
comparative advantage  to the limit, we ought to have been exporting refined
products instead of crude. In the process the relevant technological, social and
financial advantages should have been domiciled in our country.

The government should stop blackmailing us and be bold enough , take the higher moral ground (IF IT FEELS IT IS RIGHT) and remove the subsidy.

This is the right time. There is no need to postpone the evil day.

Nigerians shall in turn respond appropriately. If the government wins, no problem but if they fail, Ha, Nigerians have asserted their will and it will be a calamity for the government and victory for the people means that nobody can take us for granted again.

Thereafter, we shall take the struggle to other spheres of life where the bureaucracy, politicians, legislators and their beneficiaries have collectively conspired to make our lives miserable.

dmainboss:

Some of you forget some basic facts. The government does not have to guarantee this or that. There are many business men and companies willing to come in and do business and create competition. All they need is liberalisation and policies to guide it. Just open the doors and you will see over one hundred companies ready to open refineries and fight for a share of the business. The end result is simple. Prices willl go down and the product will be available everywhere. Those who keep saying fuel will sell at 150k only show they know nothing about business. Competition will always drive prices down. Its the simple law of supply and demand. The phone industry is a very clear example

I believe you dont live in Nigeria cos if you do you will no that cement is not subsidized and yet there is no competition, same goes for sugar, flour e.t.c,
i'm willing to bet that if subsidy is removed, NNPC will be only ones importing fuel via dangote, otedola and co??

4rm d economic point of view, subsidy have to go but 4rm political and social point of view, subsidy have 2 stay.
I have stop aguein abt remove or not to remove. I dont suport d removal. But i have a question y cant d govt make our refineries work in full capacity.
They can remove it o, i go siddon luk, God knw say i talk my own.

We wldn't need fuel subsidy if we've sufficient / functional refineries. We've never had a true govt in Nigeria that sincerely want her citizens to suffer less. My only concern is that the removal may be another way of tricking Nigerians into new cabal that would be benefiting 4m the fuel subsidy removal.

dmainboss:

Some of you forget some basic facts. The government does not have to guarantee this or that. There are many business men and companies willing to come in and do business and create competition. All they need is liberalisation and policies to guide it. Just open the doors and you will see over one hundred companies ready to open refineries and fight for a share of the business. The end result is simple. Prices willl go down and the product will be available everywhere. Those who keep saying fuel will sell at 150k only show they know nothing about business. Competition will always drive prices down. Its the simple law of supply and demand. The phone industry is a very clear example

Refineries are very very capital intensive projects with tight margins. Why do you think most of the NOCs are shying away from building refineries?

It is a known fact that refineries have very weak profit margins. There will be no mad scramble to build refineries in Nigeria and the petrol price will not fall anytime soon.

Secondly, you would do well to realize that in the case of the phone industry, individual choices were easy and possible. Consumers could switch networks with ease. There aren't that many marketers out there and those that exist are perfectly happy to remain in cartels to fix prices to boost profit.

i agree that competition will do the market a bit  good.u can use the case of gsm as example.d price has been fallen since.thanks to competition.

It's so pathetic when some folks come here and post what they do not know, fuel/gas is a natural resources and Nigeria is one of the few countires that is blessed with it. The subsidy came in place when 'government' put people in place to sabotage the refineries so we could start/keep importing fuels to the country.

I will give you an instance -Libya (one of OPEC members)
Petrol is very cheap in Libya, which compensates for all the above costs: one of the cheapest in the world. Some tourists find it "bizarre" that alcohol-free beer costs 5 Libyan dinars, when 10 litres of petrol cost 2 Libyan dinars. As in any other country, imported goods are generally more expensive than goods produced locally.

Petrol : 20p a litre (0.20 LYD).
Diesel : 15p a litre (0.15 LYD).


Update: (March 2011):

Libya has slashed petrol prices in Libya by 25%. The price of one litre of petrol is now 15 pence, down by 5 pence from 20 pence.
http://www.temehu.com/Prices.htm

Based on the above, 100 pence make one GBP,so 15 pence is about N37.50, a litre of petrol is sold for less that N40 in Libya, people what are we saying?
GEJ has been talking, i understand, he did not start the problem but if he wants to solve it, removing the subsidy is not the first thing to do, we should have more refineries in place and get the old ones working then no one should even be talking about subsidy in the first place.
May God punish all these people that drove us and left us at the juncture. 

Joey82:

@op,

its true subsidy has to be removed but for me, what's important is the timing more than the removal.
I feel the Government should try to build refineries that will be fully operational to augment for importations before removing subsidy.
Moneys spent on subsidy so far is enough to have gotten us at least 30 refineries and we wont have any need to keep importing and spending so much on subsidy.

benlay:

It's so pathetic when some folks come here and post what they do not know, fuel/gas is a natural resources and Nigeria is one of the few countires that is blessed with it. The subsidy came in place when 'government' put people in place to sabotage the refineries so we could start/keep importing fuels to the country.

I will give you an instance -Libya (one of OPEC members)
Petrol is very cheap in Libya, which compensates for all the above costs: one of the cheapest in the world. Some tourists find it "bizarre" that alcohol-free beer costs 5 Libyan dinars, when 10 litres of petrol cost 2 Libyan dinars. As in any other country, imported goods are generally more expensive than goods produced locally.

Petrol : 20p a litre (0.20 LYD).
Diesel : 15p a litre (0.15 LYD).


Update: (March 2011):

Libya has slashed petrol prices in Libya by 25%. The price of one litre of petrol is now 15 pence, down by 5 pence from 20 pence.
http://www.temehu.com/Prices.htm

Based on the above, 100 pence make one GBP,so 15 pence is about N37.50, a litre of petrol is sold for less that N40 in Libya, people what are we saying?
GEJ has been talking, i understand, he did not start the problem but if he wants to solve it, removing the subsidy is not the first thing to do, we should have more refineries in place and get the old ones working then no one should even be talking about subsidy in the first place.
May God punish all these people that drove us and left us at the juncture.

It is clear that all our past leaders including the dead ones need to be brought out and all of them shot and killed again.

The finance minister gave a staggering amount as moneys that has gone into subsidy and i can remember that all along we have been advocating for other refineries to be built but no way, they continue to steal the money thru develish importation.

How a country like naija still has delapitated refineries still beats me, and for those saying it is not right for govt to build refineries, i think that is just not right. Govt is in the business of making life comfortable for its citizenry and in cases like this there are some projects that they take into their hands which will always include private participation. we ought to have have had atleast 10 refinaries in this country, stop the exportation of crude and be in the business of exporting everything that is the product and by-product of this processed crude.

As per the removal of the subsidy, I strongly feel the subsudy should go. if i get what GEJ wants to do, he wants to remove the subsidy now sothat private refinaries would be built and then prices would be forced down through competition, which is not a bad idea and the supposed money used for the supposed subsidy channelled to other infrastructural development which we are not sure will happen cos of the level of corruption which he also has to tackle.

The problem is that we know it would take about 4 years, if they start now, for the so called private businessmen to build their refinaries, within this 4 years what will happen to the common man, them no go never die finish? this is the insensitive part of the whole subsidy removal and that is why refinaries should have been the first thing to be built while trying as much as possible to fight the smuggling that would be taking place. If the govt is serious about fighting the smuggling then i know they can, but because these same pple invested in GEJ coming election he cant/wont touch them.

We are in a very bad situation in this country. lets see how things pan out.

benlay:

It's so pathetic when some folks come here and post what they do not know, fuel/gas is a natural resources and Nigeria is one of the few countires that is blessed with it. The subsidy came in place when 'government' put people in place to sabotage the refineries so we could start/keep importing fuels to the country.
I will give you an instance -Libya (one of OPEC members)

USA, Britain and a few Scandinavian countries are also "blessed" with oil & gas natural resources. They give no subsidy but allow private investors do their business while government creates the enabling environment and monitors/controls just as is done with Nigeria's GSM since 2001. Evidence to support this governance model abound even in Nigeria. Moreover many able-bodied Nigerians are lining up and going to prayer sessions/vigils for visas to these countries where they have no fuel subsidy- WHY
One decade after we can see the difference with telecommunication service compared to NITEL that was on subsidy life-support without results. The same is true for Nigeria Airways. It is in the interest of everyone, particularly the masses to remove fuel subisdy.

coded guy:

It is clear that all our past leaders including the dead ones need to be brought out and all of them shot and killed again.

The finance minister gave a staggering amount as moneys that has gone into subsidy and i can remember that all along we have been advocating for other refineries to be built but no way, they continue to steal the money thru develish importation.

How a country like naija still has delapitated refineries still beats me, and for those saying it is not right for govt to build refineries, i think that is just not right. Govt is in the business of making life comfortable for its citizenry and in cases like this there are some projects that they take into their hands which will always include private participation. we ought to have have had atleast 10 refinaries in this country, stop the exportation of crude and be in the business of exporting everything that is the product and by-product of this processed crude.

As per the removal of the subsidy, I strongly feel the subsudy should go. if i get what GEJ wants to do, he wants to remove the subsidy now sothat private refinaries would be built and then prices would be forced down through competition, which is not a bad idea and the supposed money used for the supposed subsidy channelled to other infrastructural development which we are not sure will happen cos of the level of corruption which he also has to tackle.

The problem is that we know it would take about 4 years, if they start now, for the so called private businessmen to build their refinaries, within this 4 years what will happen to the common man, them no go never die finish? this is the insensitive part of the whole subsidy removal and that is why refinaries should have been the first thing to be built while trying as much as possible to fight the smuggling that would be taking place. If the govt is serious about fighting the smuggling then i know they can, but because these same pple invested in GEJ coming election he cant/wont touch them.

We are in a very bad situation in this country. lets see how things pan out.

You are a commedian genus

anonimi:

USA, Britain and a few Scandinavian countries are also "blessed" with oil & gas natural resources. They give no subsidy but allow private investors do their business while government creates the enabling environment and monitors/controls just as is done with Nigeria's GSM since 2001. Evidence to support this governance model abound even in Nigeria. Moreover many able-bodied Nigerians are lining up and going to prayer sessions/vigils for visas to these countries where they have no fuel subsidy- WHY
One decade after we can see the difference with telecommunication service compared to NITEL that was on subsidy life-support without results. The same is true for Nigeria Airways. It is in the interest of everyone, particularly the masses to remove fuel subisdy.

Please do not compare GSM and fuel, they are not in the same league. With GSM pple waited for the prices to come down b4 buying. i remember when glo was selling SIM for 1Naira.

With fuel, there is a rippling effect on every other commodity, how would the poor man survive before supposed competition drives down the price for him to afford it.

anonimi:

USA, Britain and a few Scandinavian countries are also "blessed" with oil & gas natural resources. They give no subsidy but allow private investors do their business while government creates the enabling environment and monitors/controls just as is done with Nigeria's GSM since 2001. Evidence to support this governance model abound even in Nigeria. Moreover many able-bodied Nigerians are lining up and going to prayer sessions/vigils for visas to these countries where they have no fuel subsidy- WHY
One decade after we can see the difference with telecommunication service compared to NITEL that was on subsidy life-support without results. The same is true for Nigeria Airways. It is in the interest of everyone, particularly the masses to remove fuel subisdy.

The subsidy is/was a stop-gap measure to reduce the financial burden on the masses from the high landing costs of imported refined petroleum. Ergo, the subsidies should only be removed AFTER the existing refineries have been revamped and new ones built to ensure pump price still remains affordable.

It costs approx $5 billion to build a refinery. GEJ should have used our $20 billion ECA cash to build 4 refineries instead of dashing it out to the greedy state Govs.

Joey82:

@op,

its true subsidy has to be removed but for me, what's important is the timing more than the removal.
I feel the Government should try to build refineries that will be fully operational to augment for importations before removing subsidy.
Moneys spent on subsidy so far is enough to have gotten us at least 30 refineries and we wont have any need to keep importing and spending so much on subsidy.

My exact tots. Interesting to see the govt shying away from these ideas at different press foras.

Joey82:

@op,

its true subsidy has to be removed but for me, what's important is the timing more than the removal.
I feel the Government should try to build refineries that will be fully operational to augment for importations before removing subsidy.
Moneys spent on subsidy so far is enough to have gotten us at least 30 refineries and we wont have any need to keep importing and spending so much on subsidy.

My exact tots. Interesting to see the govt shying away from these ideas at different press foras.