Nigeria back to the era of petrol subsidies

The Federal Government on Monday said it was currently subsidising Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol at N12.62 per litre.

It said that the subsidy figure was for petrol imported directly by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and dispensed at its retail outlets, while the rate was N12.88 per litre for other oil marketers.

This is contained in the latest Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Template released in Abuja.

It said that although provision was not made for subsidy in the 2016 budget, it would be defrayed from “recoveries’’ made by the country from oil transactions in the first quarter of 2016.

It said that between January and March, the Federal Government was able to save about N10 billion as a result of selling the product above the Expected Open Market Price.

According to the new template, the expected open market price of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) has risen to N99.38 per litre for independent and major oil marketers and N98.62 per litre for NNPC retail outlets.

It added that the expected open market price was the actual price of the product without subsidy and it was based on the current exchange rate of N197 to a dollar.

It said that at the current price of N86 per litre at NNPC retail outlets, the Federal Government was paying N12.62 per litre as subsidy on the product and N12.88 per litre as subsidy for other oil marketers’ price of N86.50.

A breakdown of the template revealed that for NNPC retail outlets and independent and major oil marketers, the Landing Cost of PMS imported into the country was N84.32 and N85.08 per litre respectively,

It stated that the distribution margin, which include retailers, transportation, bridging fund and dealers margin among others stood at N14.30 for both the NNPC and other marketers.

According to the statement, this brings the current Expected Open Market Price to N98.62 and N99.38 for NNPC retail outlets and other marketers respectively.