Zacch Adedeji, chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), has stated that maintaining the petrol subsidy would have cost the federal government N53 trillion. He argued that this unsustainable fiscal burden would have caused the naira to plummet to N3,500 per dollar due to intense pressure on foreign exchange and government borrowing. Adedeji defended the removal of the subsidy as a critical economic necessity, claiming it has reduced fiscal strain and improved the outlook for domestic refining and investment. The N53 trillion figure represents an estimated potential cost rather than actual expenditure.