The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has disclosed that the plans are being concluded to discontinue the payment of N120 billion for fuel subsidy.
The national oil company noted that move had become imperative to reduce the burden placed on the corporation by the ongoing subsidisation of fuel price.
NNPC Group General Manager (GMD), Mele Kyari, said that the burden placed upon NNPC by the subsidy regime in the country was overwhelming.
Kyari made the disclosure on Thursday at the weekly presidential ministerial media briefing at the State House in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He stated that petrol was currently being sold below the cost of importation and that with the current reality, Nigerians would have to pay the actual cost for petrol in no distant time.
According to him, the NNPC can no longer bear the monumental cost and it important that we allow market forces to determine the pump price of petrol in the country in the nearest future.
He, however, refrained from giving details and date when the corporation would stop subsidising petrol, adding that contrary to reports that NNPC was still paying subsidy, the national oil company was only paying to maintain the pump price of petrol at the current level.
