NNPC: We spent N541bn on petrol subsidy in six months

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it spent N541.65 billion on petrol subsidy between February and July 2021.

This is according to a document detailing the national oil company’s presentation at the August 2021 Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.

A breakdown showed that petrol subsidy payments gulped N25.37 billion in February, N60.39 billion in March, and N61.96 billion in April.

It further rose to N126.298 billion in May, then N164.337 billion in June, and reduced significantly to N103.286 billion in July.

The NNPC, which is currently the sole importer of petrol, has continued to bear the burden of underpriced sales of premium motor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol.

In recent months, the corporation has been deducting subsidy payments from oil and gas proceeds due to the three tiers of government.

In April, TheCable exclusively reported that subsidy cost made the corporation not make any remittance to the FAAC in May.

The corporation deducted N126 billion in June; N114.3 billion in July; N170.4 billion in August from its remittaance to FAAC in the aforementioned months.

The document showed that between January and August, the corporation made a contribution of N349.25 billion to the federal, state and local governments with a deficit of N1.12 trillion.

A breakdown of the FAAC remittances includes N90.86 billion in January; N64.16 billion in February; N41.18 billion in March; zero contributions in April; N38.61 billion in May; N47.16 billion in June and N67.28 billion in July.

On Friday, TheCable reported that the NNPC would deduct a total sum of N215.32 billion from its remittance to the FAAC in September.

“Out of the value shortfall of N143,286,281,752.62, the sum of N103,286,281,752.62 was applied on the gross domestic receipts before arriving at the net receipt of N67.28bn in order to make funds available for JV cost recovery to sustain the existing production level. The balance of N40bn will be deducted in subsequent months,” the NNPC document reads.

“The July 2021 value shortfall of N175,317,701,294.80 & outstanding balance of N40bn will be deductible from the August 2021 proceeds due for sharing at the September 2021 FAAC meeting.”

Mele Kyari, group managing director of NNPC, had said the pump price of petrol should be N256 per litre.

He noted that subsidy payments had begun to gulp between N140 billion to N150 billion monthly.