THE Federal Government has denied speculation that it has surreptitiously removed the subsidy on petroleum products.The government at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja said it had not fixed a date for the commencement of the zero-subsidy regime.Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who briefed journalists on the outcome of the FEC said, No take -off date has been announced for subsidy removal. But the truth of the matter is that our country is in a very difficult economic situation.To continue to run Nigeria using one third of the budget to (go on) one product is to absolutely a path to a greater difficulty for the economy. We have been talking and the consultation is a continuous one.We are talking about this because every sector we opened up had produced results. People who are emotionally talking about it are not actually addressing what we are saying.As part of the preparation for the deregulation of the oil sector, the minister said the original builders of the nations four refineries had been asked to carry out Turn-Around-Maintenance so that they could be producing at 100 per cent capacity.Maku said FEC had also resolved to convene a special stakeholders meeting in 2012 to examine the options and opportunities available to the country to attract foreign investors through Public Private Partnership.He added that all ministries, departments and agencies of government would also set up special units to train members of staff on ways of attracting PPP.The FEC also gave the Ministry of Finance the go-ahead to pick up additional 62,000 shares allocated to the country in Africa Reinsurance Corporation.The shares will cost the country $8.804m. Based on a memo presented by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the council gave approval for the award of contract for the execution of the outstanding works of gas supply to Niger Delta Power Corporation, Alaoji, in favour of Messrs OLISERV Limited in the sum of N2,582,787,557.23. The FEC adjourned for the year to resume January 11, 2012.Meanwhile, THE PUNCH learnt that the meeting the Presidency held with organised labour at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday night, ended in a deadlock.The botched meeting was the second attempt by the Federal Government to woo labour to accept subsidy removal, in the past nine days. The first meeting had been put off penultimate Tuesday because the Trade Union Congress boycotted it.According to a joint statement signed by the Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, and his TUC counterpart, Chief John Kolawole, on Wednesday, the government team led by Jonathan failed to convince organised labour on the desirability of the proposal to remove fuel subsidy.The President was said to have presented a Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme at the Tuesday meeting.But the labour delegation, led by Messrs Abdulwahed Omar and Peter Esele, presidents of the NLC and the TUC respectively, insisted that the subsidy should not be removed.The labour leaders also said that they could not trust government to implement SURE, citing the non-implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage which it had promised to pay as starting from August, 2011.The statement reads, The NLC and TUC expect that the Presidency will not remove fuel subsidy until it concludes the consultations with all stakeholders including Labour.Also, Labour is of the firm opinion that given the high level of insecurity in the country, the hardship Nigerians are facing and deepening poverty, the removal of fuel subsidy will be injurious to the citizens and the country.It (the labour) insisted that if non-oil producing nations can refine petroleum products, a big oil producing country like Nigeria has no excuse to be import-dependent.Labour said government had basic responsibilities to the populace and not make externally driven proscriptions like the IMF did on SAP under the Babangida regime and that its opposition to fuel subsidy removal is driven by its belief that the people must come first on all policies.The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, in an interview with one of our correspondents on Wednesday, confirmed that no agreement was reached at the labour leaders meeting with the President. He, however, said that consultations with the labour unions were still ongoing.
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