Sudan’s ruling party moves closer to lifting fuel subsidies: reports
May 29, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The parliamentary bloc of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has reportedly approved plans to lift subsidisation of fuel commodities to mitigate the country’s economic crisis.
The government’s plan to lift fuel subsidies has been an open secret since the NCP-dominated parliament refused to approve it in the previous term.
Some MPs warned back then that the move is likely to spark a popular uprising given the economic hardships the public has been enduring since the country lost three-quarters of its daily oil output, and hence it’s main source of hard currency revenues, with South Sudan’s secession last year.
The Sudanese government has been speaking of the necessity to apply austerity measures, including cuts in governmental salaries, to help the country weather the effects of losing oil revenues.
Local newspapers on Tuesday quoted unidentified NCP sources as saying that the party’s parliamentary bloc had reached an understanding with the party’s economic sector to “gradually” lift subsidies on fuel commodities but with the commitment to offer direct subsidisation of other commodities to poor pockets of the society.
They revealed that the party’s parliamentarians had accepted the proposal after NCP’s economy officials presented them with a report explaining the situation. They further said they expect the proposal to be referred for final approval to the NCP’s leadership office chaired by President Omer Al-Bashir.
The sources however declined to divulge whether subsidisation will be lifted from both Fuel and Gasoline or only one of them.
In the same context, the NCP’s organisational secretary Hamid Sidiq on Tuesday went to great lengths to justify the potential suspension of fuel subsidies. He also confirmed that the measure is among other options being discussed to weather the economic crisis.
Hamid claimed that subsidised fuel commodities were being smuggled from Sudan into neighbouring countries. He added that the price of fuel per gallon in Sudan is $2.5 while in Ethiopia it is $4, Chad $6 and South Sudan $7.
“Sudanese people cannot afford the burden of supporting other nations in the continent” he said.
(ST)