Posted on: 06:32 Sun, 03 Apr 2016



The Federal Government on
Saturday recommenced the
payment of subsidy on petrol as it
subsidised the commodity by N5.84
for every litre of premium motor
spirit consumed in Nigeria.

Subsidy on petrol was stopped in
January after the review of the
pricing template of the product by
the government.

It also announced that the current
official pump prices of petrol would
remain at N86 per litre when
purchased at filling stations run by
the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation and N86.5 per litre
when sold at outlets operated by
other oil marketers.

The government further said petrol
scarcity would end in a few days,
but was silent on the specific day or
date.

Figures from the latest pricing
templates of the Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency released
on Saturday, showed that the
Federal Government was paying
N5.84 as subsidy on every litre of
petrol sold at non-NNPC filling
stations.

The PPPRA is the agency of the
Federal Government that regulates
the prices of white products —
petrol and kerosene, across the
country.

According to the agency, the
Expected Open Market Price of
petrol for non-NNPC stations as at
April 2, 2016, was N92.34 per litre,
against an official pump price of
N86.5 per litre, leaving an under-
recovery or subsidy of N5.84 per
litre.

Similarly, the template for NNPC-
run stations showed that the
government was paying N5.80 per
litre as subsidy, as the EOMP for
outlets in this category was N91.80
per litre as against an official rate
of N86 per litre.

The EOMP is the actual cost of
petrol without subsidy and
comprises of the landing cost of the
product as well as its subtotal
margins like transporters charge,
admin fee, dealers cost, bridging
fund, etc.

On the retained pump price of
petrol, the Acting Executive
Secretary, PPPRA, Mrs. Sotonye
Iyoyo, said, “The agency is
retaining the retail prices of N86.00
for the NNPC, and N86.50 for the
other marketing companies. The
pump price of household kerosene
also remains unchanged from what
it was in the last quarter.

“Therefore, marketers are advised
to ensure that there is no price
distortion in their respective retail
outlets.

PPPRA, however, shall continue to
monitor the global oil market
performances, and come up, at
appropriate time, with reasonable
changes consistent with the newly-
adopted price modulation
principles.

On news making the rounds that
the agency was planning to
increase the petrol price, Iyoyo
urged members of the public to
ignore such rumour, as prevailing
market indicators do not support
such.

She also called on motorists to
desist from panic-buying, stressing
that “PPPRA was working hard with
other sister-organisations to ensure
that the current supply and
distribution challenges were
resolved within the coming days.”

Meanwhile, the agency stated that it
had released the second quarter
allocations for the supply of petrol,
based on the approval of the
Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

It said, “In the latest release, the
apex national oil company, the
NNPC, has 41.74 per cent of the
total allocation, while the rest of
the oil marketing companies got a
total allocation of 58.27 per cent.”