The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Nigeria and other nations still subsidising fuel for domestic use to refrain from such act.
The IMF said fuel subsidy removal would help develop revenue and improve on local infrastructure development.
The IMF President, Christine Lagarde, shed light this yesterday in Washington DC at a news conference during the ongoing IMF/World Bank meeting.
Her words, “Nigeria has among the lowest Tax to GDP ratio which signifies low revenue mobilisation for the government and the only way to fill in the gap is to remove subsidy.
“We believe that removal of fossil fuel subsidies is the right way to go.
“If you look at our numbers since 2015, it is no less than 5.2 trillion dollar that is spent on fuel subsidies and the consequences thereof.
“Our Fiscal Affairs Department actually identified how much would have been saved fiscally, but also in terms of human life if there has been the right price on carbon emission as of 2015.
“The numbers are quite staggering.
“There will be more fund available for public spending to build more hospitals, roads, schools, and to support education and health for the people,”
“As I said a year ago, we are talking about synchronised growth. And 75 percent of the global economy is going through that phase.
“As you have heard a couple of days ago, we are now talking about a synchronised slowdown by 70 percent of the global economy,”
“Our projected rebound from 3.3 in 2019 to 3.6 by 2020 is precarious and subject to downside risks, ranging from unresolved trade tensions, yet high debt in some sectors and countries, both public and corporate.
“Also there is the risk of the weaker-than-expected growth in some stressed economies.”
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