FG Has No Money To Pay For Subsidy – Mele Kyari Says, Reveals How Much NNPCL Is Owed
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL),Mele Kyari, has revealed that the Federal Government owes the company the sum of N2.8 trillion that it had spent on petrol subsidy.
Kyari while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, May 30, after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, said that the subsidy payment is no longer tenable as it makes it difficult for the company to fund its core businesses.
He reaffirmed that petroleum subsidy will no longer continue in the country.
“Today, we are waiting for them to settle up to N2.8tn of NNPC’s cash flow from the subsidy regime and we can’t continue to build this.”
“Since the provision of the N6trn in 2022, and N3.7trn in 2023, we 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 cash flow. 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. And 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.”
“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 cash flow from the subsidy regime and we can’t continue to build this,” he explained.
Kyari said the reemerging petrol queues nationwide are understandable as marketers will like to understand the meaning of the president’s pronouncement that “subsidy is gone.”
The NNPCL boss assured Nigerians that the government will initiate measures to cushion the effects of the subsidy discontinuance.
