The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)  yesterday said  that the country is spending over N400 billion monthly on petroleum subsidy.

    The NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, disclosed this at the final cutover ceremony of NNPC and the birth of NNPCL at the corporation’s towers in Abuja. Mr Kyari noted that NNPCL is the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria and has continued to play this role for several years running, bearing the huge cost of fuel subsidy. According to him, other private oil marketers stopped importing petrol into Nigeria due to the difficulty encountered in accessing the United States dollars, required for the import of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS).

“Today, by law and the provisions of the Appropriation Act, there is a subsidy on the supply of petroleum products, particularly PMS, into our country. In current data terms, three days ago the landing cost was around N315/litre,” he said.

“Our customers are here, we are transferring to each of them at N113 per litre. That means there is a difference of close to N202 for every litre of PMS we import into this country. “In computation, N202 multiplied by 66.5 million litres, multiplied by 30 will give you over N 400 billion of subsidy every month.” Mr Kyari said that the funding of petrol subsidy by NNPCL had been ongoing without refunds from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, despite being budgeted for in the appropriation act.