NNPCL Debunks Payment of Subsidy to Marketers

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has debunked allegations that the Federal Government is still paying subsidy to marketers on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.
Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Malam Mele Kyari stated this while addressing State House Correspondents on Monday in Abuja.
He said that contrary to speculations on social media, that the Federal Government no longer pays subsidy to any person or group for importing petroleum products into the country.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market.
“We understand why marketers are unable to import. We hope that they begin to do so very quickly and these are some of the interventions government is making. There is no subsidy,’’ he added.
Kyari further stated that few queues witnessed in some fuel stations across some states recently were due to bad roads that compelled transporters to divert the product to other routes.
“Moving the products from the southern depots into the northern part of the country takes them longer time now than it used to be.
“They have to re-route their trucks around many locations for them to be able to reach their destinations and that created delays and some supply gaps. But that has been filled and we do not see any of such problems again.
“Secondly, because of the full deregulation that we have in this sector, marketers are now competing among themselves,” he said.
The group managing director hinted that some of the queues surfaced due to the customers desire to patronise fuel stations that offered low prices.
He added: “You must have noticed that some fuel stations will reduce their prices by N2 or N3. So, customers will naturally run to the places where you have that reduction in prices and probably create panic.
“This is because those who don’t know why they are doing it will think that there’s something happening or that there’s an ominous sign of scarcity.”
Kyari informed that there are over 1.4 billion litres of petrol available for local consumption, both on the sea and land, assuring that there is no cause for alarm.
He stated that the marketers are currently competing for the product and how to satisfy their customers, noting that NNPCL alongside other agencies of government is engaging with the marketers to resolve critical issues bordering on access to foreign exchange.
Kyari informed that the government is working assiduously to facilitate steady supply of forex into the market, saying that the forex markets would stabilise the current I&E window pegged at 770.
While hoping that the government’s input would stabilise the forex markets, he assured marketers of a stable forex where the prices of the product would align with the prices of other commodities.