Ike Amos
20 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Friday, described the extra financial burden it is bearing following the difference in the landing cost of petrol and the pump price as business loss and not the subsidy.
The NNPC, in a statement in Abuja, said it can not be said that it is paying subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, especially as the National Assembly had not made provision for such payment.
In a statement in Abuja, by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, said the clarification became necessary, following a statement wrongly attributed to the Managing Director of Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, Mr. Umar Ajiya, suggesting that NNPC does not require the National Assembly’s nod to subsidize Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise called petrol.
He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, Mr. Ajiya explained that there was under-recovery in the importation and sale of PMS by NNPC, but the burden is categorized as business losses which the Act establishing NNPC recognizes.
“Ajiya had made it explicitly clear that the losses from the PMS imports by NNPC could not be classified as subsidy since it was not appropriated for by the National Assembly.
“NNPC wishes to disabuse the minds of its numerous publics to disregard the statement incorrectly attributed to Mr. Ajiya as it represents neither PPMC nor the NNPC’s position on the subject.
“The corporation is alive to the critical roles the National Assembly statutorily plays in the administration of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector and would, therefore, not undermine the legislators in their legitimate business.”
