We Can’t Bear N120bn Monthly Subsidy Burden, FG Cries Out

The Federal Government, yesterday, said that the government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), will not continue to bear the about N120billion monthly subsidy burden on the petroleum products.
The government said the burden had become too heavy to bear and that after the conclusion of talks with the organized labour on how to caution the effects of the deregulation of the oil sector, the market forces would be allowed to determine prices of petroleum products.
Speaking during the Presidential Ministerial Media Briefing featuring the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, at the State House, Abuja, the Group Managing Director (GMD), Mele Kyari, said that NNPC currently subsidizes cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), with about N120billion ($263,248million) monthly.
The Special Ministerial Briefings coordinated by the Presidential Communication Team.
Kyari explained that the NNPC absorbs the cost differential which is recorded in its financial books, adding that while the actual cost of importation and handling charges amounts to N234 per liter, the government is selling at N162 per liter.
He, however, said that the NNPC can no longer afford to bear the cost and that sooner or later Nigerians would have to pay the actual cost for the commodity.
Kyari, who avoided calling the payment a subsidy, said the NNPC pays between N100-120billion a month to keep the pump price at the current levels, insisting that market forces must be allowed to determine the pump price of petrol in the country.