The Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Finance, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on Thursday said it was not true that no
provision was made for fuel subsidy in the 2015 budget, which was passed by the
lawmakers this week.
Makarfi, who made the clarification in Abuja, also
gave an insight into how the nation could effectively address the issue of high
cost of governance.
The Senate had on Tuesday passed the
national budget of N4.493tn for the 2015 fiscal year, about five months after
the proposal was presented by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The fiscal document, which was earlier passed by the House
of Representatives last week, was N51bn higher than the N4.425tn submitted to
both chambers of the National Assembly by the Federal Government.
Following the passage of the budget, there had been
insinuations that there was no provision for fuel subsidy this year, with some
analysts suggesting that it was a booby trap set for the in-coming government
of Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
But Makarfi said the sum of N100bn was provided as
subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit, while N43bn was approved for Dual Purpose
Kerosene for the 2015 fiscal period.
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