The Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Derivatives Company, Bismarck Rewane, has said that subsidy was not removed but reduced.
He stated this when he appeared on Channels Television’s on Sunday evening.
During the programme, Rewane also highlighted the effects of the reduction in fuel subsidy and how it has affected Nigerian salary earners.
“At the inauguration, it was said that subsidy was gone but subsidy was actually reduced,” he said.
According to Rewane: “There is the convergence of exchange rates and reducing the windows into one. The consequence of that money has been transferred from consumers to the government.
“Subsidies are reversed taxes; if you reduce them, you increase the people’s taxes and reduce their income. What has happened is that government revenue has increased by 44% between May and June. Money has been transferred to the government but what is the government doing with it?
“The consumers, on the other hand, had a minimum wage, which in dollar terms was 40 dollars in 2002. In 2019, it was about 70 dollars but it has now been reduced to 24 dollars.”
