FG Yet To Funded 2022, 2023 Petrol Subsidies – Kyari

 

The Group chief executive officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), says the federal government has yet to funded the petrol subsidies for 2022 and 2023, despite budgetary provisions.

Earlier on Thursday, Kyari made this revelation in an interview with Arise TV.

The GCEO was responding to inquiries over what might be regarded as the abrupt removal of the country’s gasoline subsidy, which has caused pump prices to increase and a purported shortage.

The federal government announced last year that it will stop paying subsidies by June 2023 and budgeted N3.36 trillion for under-recovery payments.

But Kyari claimed that aside from the NNPC’s inability to finance subsidies, the federal government had not yet given the allocated amounts since the year’s beginning.

“The key issue is the country does not have the money to back subsidy,” he said.

“There was a provision of N6.3 trillion in 2022 and N3.7 trillion in 2023 for up to half a year, but I can tell you that not a single naira of that has been funded and what did we do because by law we are obligated to pay taxes and royalties and other obligations but we held back the fiscal obligations of our shareholders because there was nothing to do.

“The burden of subsidy must be financed because the provision in the law simply means that the government will write a cheque to NNPC at the end of the month for the service that we’re providing to the nation. That cheque has not been written at all.

“Absolutely, there is a provision in the budget but you do not have the cash to back it up or you also don’t have the fiscal obligation that should have come for the NNPC to settle for this and this definitely means that there is provision for the end of June, according to the appropriation act but you can’t give what you don’t have.”