Fuel Subsidies To Be Lifted In 2017-2018 Budget Subsides given to Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet), a State oil Corporation to import fuel for domestic consumption will be lifted, if the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018 is tabled to the parliament and approved. 08 July 2017 Fuel Subsidies To Be Lifted In 2017-2018 Budget Stephen Dhieu Dau, Minister of Finance and Planning speaking to the press in Juba [Photo by Jale Richard]
By Jale Richard JUBA, 08 July 2017 [Gurtong]-Speaking during a presentation of the proposed budget to donors on Wednesday, Hon. Stephen Dhieu Dau, Minister of Finance and Planning, said he has proposed for removal of the subsidy, to enable resources for government expenditure. “We are proposing to the August house, when we present the budget that they should approve in principal,” Dau said. The Finance Ministry has previously been directed by the international monetary fund to lift the fuel subsidy as one of the measures of the reforms in the public financial management. According to the estimates of the proposed budget for 2017-2018, Nilepet is expected to have up to USD 183 million (SSP 28.3 billion) to import subsidized fuel for domestic consumption. If the subsidy on fuel given to Nilepet is lifted, the government will save the USD 183 million (SSP 28.3 billion) for other expenditures. The 22 SSP per liter is the cheapest fuel price in the region due to the subsidy. Fuel price is also expected to increase since there will not be subsidies. Dau said the subsidies on businesses will be immediately lifted, if the transitional national legislative assembly approves the budget, but subsidies on other public goods such as transport, hospitals, will be lifted gradually. “We need to seriously consider reducing or eliminating the fuel price subsidy managed by Nilepet,” he said. “This is the single most viable option for increasing resource for government’s spending in 2017-2018.” He said if the government eliminates the fuel price subsidy, it will be in a position to pay salaries on time, something it has been struggling to do. Aggrey Tissa Sabuni, Presidential Adviser on Economic Affairs, said that the budget is ‘quite realistic. “At the moment we can only cover core functions of the government by meeting state transfers as well as national level salaries in a way that we will not fume inflation, we shouldn’t allow resources to go to one area thus another way forward,” he said. The Presidential Adviser however, said that he wished the budget was presented much earlier, as stipulated in the Public Financial Management and Accountability Act. Posted in: Home, Governance -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14or39qm1ttk7RscsoJmN-mRXFjCtZ0mayizBx1nWz3w_0A%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
