The House of Representatives Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said that it will be illegal now for the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy without constituting a Price Control Board in line with the Price Control Act.
Dogara, who spoke Monday in Abuja while receiving a delegation of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) that visited him, also described the perennial fuel shortage in the country as an embarrassment.
The speaker said the Price Control Act, which provides for the regulation of prices of some consumer products, including petroleum products, was yet to be repealed.
He added that for fuel 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.
According to him, the only alternative way petroleum subsidy could be removed is for the National Assembly to amend or repeal the Petroleum Control Act.
“You talked about bringing this product at no cost to the government; that implies to me the removal of subsidy.
“Now, I have had this discussion on so many platforms but as a legislator, I can tell you there is something about subsidy removal that we are not looking at.
“There is a Price Control Act; if you look at the Price Control Act, section 4 talks about regulating or controlling the prices of products that are listed in the first schedule of that Act. One of the products listed in the first schedule is petroleum products.
“So, by law in this country, we must control the prices of petroleum products. But the law as passed by the parliament gives a window and prescribes and vested the responsibility of adding up items on the schedule of the given items to the Price Regulating Board; and …Read More
Source:: New Mail
