The Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Chairman Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), Mr. Femi Falana, has called on President Bola Tinubu to dismiss the idea of increasing the tariffs for electricity and PMS by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

This was contained in a letter he personal signed and sent to newsmen today.

In his letter, he noted that sometime ago in November 2023, the Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu made a statement saying “Tariffs should have been raised months back,  but Mr. President said until we can achieve regular and incremental power supply, we can’t touch the tariff”

Mr. Adebayo further said “but for political reasons and empathy, you can not put additional burden on Nigerians. We just had the removal of fuel subsidy, we’re talking about the exchange rate skyrocketing, galloping inflation and so many other’s that brings hardship to the people“.

January 1, 2024 the National Electric Regulatory commision also debunked the rumour about an increase in tariff.

Mr. Falana further stated February 8 2024, the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) said that it had no plans to raise petrol price after a second devaluation of the local Naira currency in less than a year, following the possibility of recovering some of its imports costs as suggested by some financial analysts.

“Nevertheless, three days ago, the IMF directed the Bola Tinubu led Administration to take away the pump price of petrol and electricity tariff without any further deliberation, noting that, currently the subsidized rate is significantly lower than the market price.

By taking out the subsidy, the government would allow the equalization of petrol and electricity prices with their true market values, potentially leading to high purchase price for consumers”

“Barely 24hours later Mr. Adelabu said Nigeria must switch to a cost-effective pricing plan, the country’s debt to generating firms (GenCos) is at 1.3 trillion naira, and the country owes gas businesses 1.3 billion dollars. The country cannot continue to subsidize power.”

“It is doubtful if the neoliberal ideologues in government are aware of the fact that on January 30, 2024, the IMF warned the UK Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt against cutting taxes, arguing that country needs to curb public borrowing and prioritise spending in areas such as health, education and tackling climate change.

Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF chief economist, told the Financial Times that the UK’s focus should be on “the path towards a fiscal consolidation” despite expectations that Hunt would cut taxes at his spring Budget.” said Mr. Falana

“In urging the Bola Tinubu administration to pluck up the courage to reject the dangerous directives of the IMF to further increase the pump price of PMS and electricity tariffs, the international intruder should be questioned for applying different standards to Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Henceforth, the Federal Government should halt the implementation of the dangerous prescriptions of the IMF including the removal of subsidies and floating of the Naira.

“Our economic managers should be wary of the sort of lectures they receive from the IMF on the matter of subsidies given the realities in some advanced capitalist economies.”

On June 8, 2023, the British government said, according to the London-based news agency Reuters, that it had spent around 40 billion pounds ($50 billion) in energy subsidies since it started to assist homes and businesses in coping with the spike in power costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Le Monde, a French daily, also stated that the French government declared on April 21, 2023, that it would keep subsidizing electricity costs until 2025, citing the country’s nuclear reactor fleet continuing offline and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on prices.

The IMF has not demanded that France raise electricity rates and cease providing subsidies for electricity. Thus, the IMF’s campaign against Nigerian subsidies need to be categorically dismissed.