Subsidy Removal: Reps approve Tinubu’s N500bn request for palliatives

The House of Representatives has approved the sum of N500 billion for the Federal Government to roll out palliatives, following the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).

According to the House, the approval was sequel to the consideration and approval of a request by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act.

Recall that Tinubu in a letter addressed to the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen read out to members on the floor of the House on Wednesday, proposed an amendment to the Act to allocate N500bn to the post-subsidy palliative programme of the Tinubu administration.

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President Tinubu’s letter read: “I write to the House of Representatives to approve the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act by the attached.

“The request has become necessarily important to, among other things, the source for funds necessary to provide palliatives to mitigate the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.

“Thus, the sum of N500,000,000,000 only has been extracted from the 2022 Supplementary Act of N819,536,937,815 for the provision of palliative to cushion the effect of petrol subsidy removal.

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“Whilst I hope that the House of Representatives will consider this request expeditiously, please accept, Rt. Honourable Speaker, the assurances of my highest consideration.”

At the House plenary on Thursday, presided over by Speaker Abbas, members expressed support for the PMS subsidy removal President’s request and the readiness to back the Tinubu administration on how to cushion the effects of the post-subsidy regime on the masses.

In the same vein, the House suspended its rules to accelerate consideration and approval of President Tinubu’s request, making the money bill pass the first, second, and third readings immediately.