Subsidy removal: 2022 budget has no provision for N5000 transport grant – Senate

The Senate has said there is no provision for the proposed N5,000 transport grant to cushion the effect of subsidy removal in the 2022 budget.

Senate Committee Chairman on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan stated this after he defended his committee’s report before the Committee on Appropriations chaired by Senator Jibrin Barau on Wednesday in Abuja.

Olamilekan was asked to confirm following the earlier promise by the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who said the sum of N5,000 would be provided before the middle of 2022 to Nigerians as a transportation grant.

He further posited that the 2022 budget proposal contained fuel subsidy and not a transportation grant which amounts to N2.4 trillion.

Senator Olamilekan’s disclosure was contrary to the Minister’s submission weeks ago when she appeared before the Senate on Finance and said every citizen would be paid N5,000 as the Federal Government plans to remove fuel subsidy finally in 2022.

The lawmaker said: “I don’t want to go into details for now. I believe that if such a proposal is to come to pass, a document to that effect must be sent to National Assembly for us to see how possible it is and how do we identify the 40 million Nigerians that are going to benefit.

“There are still a lot of issues to be deliberated upon and looked into if eventually, this will come to pass. How do we raise this money to pay these 40 million Nigerians because I know that even the federal government revenues are from this so-called oil and other sources.”