FG adopts fuel subsidy over price hike in March
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said the Federal Government will pay a subsidy of N57.82 on every litre of petrol consumed in Nigeria for the month of March.
This was disclosed by NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru during a recent interview with a Nigerian daily.
Obateru since NNPC is the sole importer of petrol, it would maintain an ex-depot price of N148.6/litre for the month pending when government would conclude its consultations and deliberations with labour unions.
“The government does not just look at economics to determine certain things. So the fact is that the government is not supposed to inflict pains on the citizenry.
“And this is why the government wants to do a very wide consultation with all interested parties so that an agreement could be reached and we expect that the agreement will be reached before too long.”
It was gathered that Nigeria consumes about 57.44 million litres of petrol daily, while the actual ex-depot cost for the product was N206.42/litre. However, NNPC sells the commodity at an ex-depot price of N148.6/litre and this leaves a differential of N57.82 subsidy on every litre.
Responding to the question as to how long NNPC would sustain subsidy on petrol, Obateru said this was dependent on government’s meeting with labour unions.
Obateru also affirmed that NNPC would not hike petrol price in March so as not to fracture the ongoing discussions between government and the organised labour on the fuel price matter.
It will also be recalled that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, (PPPRA) set up the stage for the pump price controversy when on Thursday published the expected new lower and upper prices for petrol at retail outlets in March 2021, putting the rates at between N209.61/litre and N212.61/litre.
PPPRA also put the ex-depot price of petrol for the month at N206.42/litre and pegged the expected landing cost at N189.61/litre.
However, following the public outcry the Agency pulled down the price band template with an explanation that the earlier published template did not translate into a hike in pump price despite reflecting market realities.
