The Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari has disclosed that petroleum subsidy under the Buhari administration has been going between N100 to N120 billion every month and is not sustainable.
Kyari made the disclosure today while answering a question from state House reporters during the fifth edition of the Special Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team.
There has been controversy over the removal of subsidy between the President Buhari government and the last administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, especially when the current administration claimed to have removed subsidy from its year 2020 budget, however, was discovered to have just changed the name to “under-recovery” which Nigerians are yet to come to terms with.
The NNPC GMD laments that the corporation can no longer sustain paying such an amount as currently, it has gone against the realities of the market when Nigeria continue to dispense fuel at N162/litre.
Kyari made this statement shortly after the state Minister for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva has claimed his office is working round the clock to ensure the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is passed into law.
The GMD revealed that NNPC absorbs the cost differential which is recorded in its financial ledger that the actual cost of importation and other charges goes as far as N234 per litre, but the government has continued to live in denial through selling at N162 per litre, Kyari added.
He proposed that market forces should be allowed to determine the price of fuel in this country rather than living in perpetual denial.
Though he noted that the government was been considerate of the hardship the sharp increase will inflict on Nigerians.
