The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has cleared the air on the controversies surrounding fuel subsidy, declaring that it did not make payment to any marketer in the last eight or nine years.
The company stated that it has nothing to do with subsidy payment, but was only taking care of PMS importation shortfall between it and the Federation.
The NNPCL Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Alhaji Umar Ajiya, made the clarification on Monday while presenting the 2023 Audited Financial Statement (AFS) of the company. It posted a ₦3.3 trillion net profit for the year ended.
The NNPCL CFO further clarified that the company imports Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which it sells to marketers at a price dictated by the Federal Government.
Speaking further on the issue subsidy payment, Ajiya said: “I think that there is one fact that I will need to make very clear.
“In the last eight or nine years, this company [NNPCL], even corporation, as it were, has not paid anybody a dime or One Naira as subsidy.
“No one has been paid any kobo by NNPC in the name of subsidy. That means no marketer has received any money from us by the way of subsidy.”
Ajiya, however, implicitly implied that the Federal Government may have been paying subsidy to the marketers as he said the government has been instructing NNPC to sell at half of the landing cost which is the cost price.
According to him, the government pays the company to sell PMS at half price of the landing cost. He added that NNPCL has not disbursed any subsidy to the marketers
“What has been happening is that we have been importing PMS, landing at a certain, at a cost price and government is telling us to sell it at half price.
“So the difference between the landing cost and the half price price is what we called the shortfall or you call it subsidy.
“And the deal is between the Federation and NNPCL to reconcile. And sometimes they give us money; sometimes there is no money.
“So, there is no money exchanging hands to any marketer or anybody in the name of subsidy,” Ajiya further stated at the press conference.
