The Federal Government on Saturday resumes the payment of subsidy on petrol three months after it stopped subsidising the product following a review of the pricing template.
According to the government it will start paying N5.84 per litre of petrol. It also said that the product will be sold at N86 per litre in filling stations run by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and N86.5 per litre when sold by other oil marketers.
The government also repeated its promise that the current petrol scarcity would end in a few days, but did not say the exact day the scarcity will end.
On Saturday the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) released figures that showed that the Federal Government was paying N5.84 as subsidy on every litre of petrol sold at non-NNPC filling stations.
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, for NNPC-run stations it 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 Acting Executive Secretary, PPPRA, Sotonye Iyoyo, told journalists that, “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.”
Iyoyo urged members of the public to ignore such rumours of an increase in pump price 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.”
