Electricity and PMS Tariff Hike: FG Meets NLC, TUC

 The Federal Government on Tuesday dialogued with the NLC and TUC as leading blocks of organized Labour over the hike in electricity and fuel tariffs.

The assembly said to be at the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari represented by the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige is to discuss solutions to the recurring labour issues with a view to ending the incessant industrial standoff.

In attendance at the meeting was the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva.

This threat by organized labour to down tool in their statement is triggered by the recent increase in the pump prices of petrol and electricity tariff.

And in addition they are also grudging the non-implementation of the N30,000 new minimum wage, alleged corruption in government agencies, loss of jobs across the industries, high cost of living and, businesses not booming in the light of the effects of COVID-19.

Already, the labour unions and their civil society allies have proposed to commence indefinite industrial action and nationwide protest from Wednesday, September 23, 2020.

The Minister of State for Petroleum acknowledged the dire condition of the economy and called for cooperation to fix the economy.

While making a presentation on the topic, “Understanding the importance of fuel subsidy on the Nigerian Economy and the gains of deregulation,” Sylva noted that subsidy payment is the major source of corruption.

Sylva who stressed that the nation’s major source of income now  attracts low prices in the international market aside the  cut in production to about 1.412 million barrels per day. As a result Nigeria’s crude production has reduced by over 50 per cent stressing that the country has lost about N1billion daily to subsidy between 2016-2019.

Speaking further, he said the country was losing about 3.7 billion naira daily and explained as well that despite the deregulation, fuel price in the country is the cheapest in the West African region.