President Muhammadu Buhari has been warned by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara that the removal of the contentious fuel subsidy without constituting a price control board in line with the Price Control Act will be “illegal” and “ultra vires.”
He further described the perennial fuel shortage in the country as a “national embarrassment.”
Dogara issued this warning while receiving executives of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) at the National Assembly.
He said that the Price Control Act, which provides for the regulation of prices of some consumer products, including petroleum products, was yet to be repealed, adding that for the subsidy removal to be effected there must be a price control board, which is the only body vested with the powers to remove petroleum products from the first schedule of the Act.
Dogara said that the alternative way to remove fuel subsidy is for the National Assembly to amend or completely repeal the Petroleum Control Act.
It will be noted that a total of N145 billion subsidy components were embedded in the 2015 Budget. These were made up of N100 billion for subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, and N45 billion for kerosene.