By Gabriel Ogunjobi –
The Federal Government says its annual expenditure on fuel subsidy has risen to over N1.4 trillion while the monthly expenditure for susbidy is N23.999 billion.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, who gave the new figure on Thursday in Abuja described the expenditure as “under-recovery” for supply of petroleum products across the country.
The latest figure is about 81 percent higher than the earlier figure of N774 million daily given on March 5, 2018 by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, for the importation and distribution of
petroleum products in the country.
The figure means about N23.99 billion is spent every month by government to subsidise the supply of an average of 50 million litres of petrol the NNPC says Nigerians consume every day.
Mr. Kachikwu was speaking at a Liquefied Petroleum Gas workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Abuja.
He said the rising subsidy figure was as a result of the NNPC being the only marketer bearing the financial burden of importing and distributing petroleum products as the country’s sole supplier of last resort.
The minister also attributed the growing under-recovery cost to the large number of illegal petrol stations springing up in coastal communities bordering Nigeria and other neighbouring countries.
Data by the NNPC showed that about 16 of the 36 States of the federation have about 61 local government areas with border communities.
The communities account for about 2,201 registered filling stations
operating in their domains.
Mr Kachikwu said the challenge of growing under-recovery cost was “being addressed at the highest levels of government.”
Source: Premium Times
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