"Lawful way to remove fuel subsidy is through amendment of Price Control Act" - Dogara

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said that the only lawful way to remove fuel subsidy is through the amendment of the Price Control Act.

The Speaker said that the amendment of the Price Control Act could be done by removing petroleum products from the items in the schedule to the Act, which would require that a board would also repeal the Act, with the consent of the Executive.


In a meeting with the National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo, Honourable Dogara explained, that the mandate to remove or add items to the schedule of the Price Control Act is vested on the Price Control Board which is not presently in existence, a situation that could only be changed by the Executive Arm of government.

“There is something about some aspects of our laws that we are not looking at. Section 4 of the Price Control Act talks about regulating or controlling the prices of products that are listed in the first schedule to that Act. One of the products listed in that schedule is petroleum products. So by law in this country, we must control the prices of petroleum product.

“For any discussions there to be meaningful, we have to put pressure on the Executive and it is not a legislative work to constitute a board,” he stressed

Mr Dogara further explained that only the Board could decide whether petroleum products could be removed from the schedule to the Act, which would mean automatic removal of subsidy on petroleum products.

Mr Okoronkwo had earlier informed the Speaker of the association’s partnership with a Peruvian firm; Water Carbon Field Energy, for the construction of two refineries in Bayelsa and Kogi States with capacity to produce 400,000 barrels per day.

But in the short term, he proffered the solution of a crude swap for refined products which he said, would end the persistent fuel scarcity at no cost to the government.

Credit: Channels