The Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise has urged the government to take a direct intervention, such as palliatives, into consideration in light of the raging challenges brought on by the removal of fuel subsidies and foreign exchange reforms implemented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

The Executive Director of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf disclosed this on Sunday in his Half Year Economic Review 2023.

According to him, the federal government must deploy short-term measures to cushion the adverse effect of fuel subsidy removal and forex reforms.

Although Muda lauded the policies, he called for tax incentives for low-income employees and small businesses.

He added that the government should consider reducing import duty on some critical intermediate products for key sectors of the economy and import duty concessions for the transportation, health, power and energy sectors.

“There is an urgent need to address the social outcomes of the recent reforms, especially the inflationary pressure induced by the fuel subsidy removal.

“Urgent measures need to be implemented to mitigate the soaring cost of living and the escalating operating and production costs, especially for businesses”, he stated.

Recall that the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of the forex window in June had caused a sharp hike in the prices of goods and services.