Alpha Sahid Fantamadi Bangura, Finance Minister has told Member of Parliament that government subsidies on fuel is 36.1M Dollars.
In made this statement while presenting the Supplementary Budget to Member of Parliament on Monday July 31st.
He explained that the global price of fuel and freight charges, though declining, remained high relative to the pre-Ukraine crisis and that the situation is compounded by the continuous weakening of the Leone.
“This implies that the current subsidized price of fuel at NLe21.5 per litre is far less than the full pass-through pump price estimated at NLe26 per liter,” he noted.
He said that to keep fuel pump price at NLe21.5 per litre, Government has forgone NLe708.9 million (US$32.8 million) in the form of indirect subsidies during the first half of 2023 and direct subsidies which is to be paid to Oil Marketing Companies amounted to NLe75 million (US$3.3 million) during the same period.
“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, even in the midst of challenging economic conditions, Government continues to expend enormous resources on the energy sector to ensure reliable and affordable electricity supply,” he stated.
That the current electricity tariff, though considered to be high, does not reflect the actual cost of generating and transmitting electricity to households.
“Consumers are currently paying 11 US cents per kilowatt hour compared to the uplift price of 21.5 US cents. This is made possible by the substantial subsidies provided by Government to the Electricity Distribution and Supply Agency (EDSA) and the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC),” he said.
He explained that the total subsidies disbursed to EDSA for the first half of 2023 amounted to NLe274.6 million (US$13 million), including NLe263.2 million paid to Karpowership and NLe11.4 million to Transco/ CLSG, adding that NLe29 million was also disbursed to the EGTC for the supply of fuel for the running Government-owned generators in Freetown and the provinces.
In his response to the budget, the only Opposition Member of Parlaiment in the Well, Mohamed Bangura said that he did not see allocation to the Peace Commission and for renewable energy and climate change, noting that the Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs is receiving peanut.
Hon Mathew Nyuma, leader of Government Business said that they need to renegotiate the Karpowership agreement because they should not be putting the tariff in Leones while they are paying in dollars.
Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura Minister of Finance 
