The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zach Adedeji has said the federal government will cut monthly spending on petrol imports by an astounding $610 million by supplying crude oil to Dangote refinery and other local refineries in naira.
This was disclosed in a statement by Adedeji on Monday following the approval from the Federal Executive Council, according to Nairametrics.
According to Adedeji, fuel imports costs roughly $660 million a month, or roughly $7.92 billion annually.
He said this new deal will reduce the pressure on foreign exchange, as the government will save the total of $610 million monthly and approximately $7.92 billion annually.
“With this approval today through FEC led by Mr President, this has been reduced by a minimum of 90%. Because of what we have today, the transaction will now be down in our local currency not only to Dangote Refinery but to all local refineries for all our local consumption and this will stabilize the pump price.
“This will also make economic stability a reality because there will no longer rely on the fluctuation in forex.
“Just to be specific, in terms of benefits, one which is major is the reduction in foreign exchange pressure. We utilize $660 million per month, totalling $7.92 billion annually.
“With the new approval that we have, this will reduce to a maximum of $50 million per month which is annualized to be only $600 million. This is a total reduction of 94% and saving us $7.32 billion,” the FIRS boss said.
It was earlier reported that the Federal Executive Council approved President Tinubu’s proposal to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other upcoming refineries in naira.
With this move, the federal government hopes to stabilize both the dollar-naira exchange rate and petrol pump prices.
