- NMDPRA will ensure consumers not explored – ACE Ahmed
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari Tuesday disclosed that the Federal Government owed them N28 trillion which they have used to pay for the subsidy from their cashflow.
Kyari said that NNPC wouldn’t be able to continue to pay for the subsidy since the federal government has not offset what they have used to pay hence the need to end the subsidy regime.
The NNPC Ltd GCEO who spoke alongside with the Nigerian Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Authority Chief Executive Farouk Ahmed with State House correspondents after a closed doors meeting with President Bola Tinubu at his first assumption of office at the Aso Rock, said the 2023 budget made provision for the subsidy till end of June 2023.
“So today the country don’t have the money to pay for subsidy. There’s incremental value that will come from it. But it is not an issue of whether you can do it or not because today we can’t afford it and they are not able to pay our bill. That comes to how much is the federation owing NNPC now.
“Today, we are waiting for them to settle up to N2.8tn of NNPC’s cashflow from the subsidy regime and we can’t continue to build this,” he revealed.
He said “Since the provision of the N6tn in 2022, and N3.7tn in 2023, we have not have not received any payment whatsoever from the Federation.
“That means they (Federal Government) are unable to pay and we’ve continued to support this subsidy from the cash flow of the NNPC. That is, when we net off our fiscal obligations of taxes and royalty, there’s still a balance that we’re funding from our cashflow. And that has become very, very difficult and affecting our other operations.
“We’re not able to keep some of these cash for invest on our core businesses.
The end result is that it can be a huge challenge for the company and we have highlighted this severally to government that they must compensate and NNPC they must pay back an NNPC for the money that we have spent on the subsidy.”
Also speaking, Authority Chief Executive NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed said that his office being the regulatory agency has been synergizing with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to make sure oil marketers did not explore the consumers.
Ahmed said there was no operational basis or sufficiently diminished/acute reduction in product availability at both supply and retail points in the value chain to justify the hardship and constraints otherwise emerging.
The Authority on May 29, 2023, advised consumers not to engage in panic purchases or otherwise stockpiling products in a manner inconsistent with regular periodic purchases and consumption.