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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has denied that it had a dispute with independent petrol marketers over an alleged subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
There were reports that fuel marketers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria clashed with the NNPC over whether the government was still paying subsidy.
However, in a terse statement sent to Channels Television on Wednesday, NNPC spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, said subsidy has been entirely removed on petrol.
“NNPC Ltd emphasises it has not clashed with any party,” Soneye said, adding that the publication’s headline (not Channels Television) was unfortunate.
“The publication sought confirmation on alleged subsidy reduction, to which NNPC responded that subsidy has been entirely removed.”
In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu declared that the subsidy era is gone.
He said the 2023 budget made no provision for fuel subsidy, and subsidy payment was no longer justifiable.
The declaration saw petrol per litre jumping from around N184 to over N600 in several parts of the country. The removal of fuel subsidy also came with attendant economic crises with food inflation jumping to an all-time high. Oil marketers had also threatened to raise the price per litre of petrol over fluctuating and scarce foreign exchange used to secure the essential commodity.
However, the implementation of subsidy removal has been subject to controversies with the World Bank saying that the NNPC was not transparent about the financial gains from fuel subsidy removal and that subsidy was not entirely gone.
The Bretton Woods institution had argued that gains in net oil revenue of the federation were lower than what they should have been but NNPC boss, Mele Kyari had defended the government, saying the company was recovering the full cost from imported products.
