The Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, paid N43.09 billion as a subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, in the month of February 2020, according to data obtained on Monday, March 2, 2020, from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
The amount paid as a subsidy in January 2020 represented a decline of 22.47 percent when compared with the N55.58 billion paid by the Federal Government to subsidize the commodity in December 2019.
Figures gleaned from the PPPRA’s PMS Pricing Templates and Daily Truck-Out Reports for January 2020, but the average Expected Open Market Price, EOMP, of PMS at N171.27 per liter, meaning that at a regulated price of N145 per liter, the Federal Government paid an average of N26.27 per liter as subsidy on fuel in January.
In addition, the PPPRA reports stated that a total of 1.591 billion liters of petrol was supplied across Nigeria in 30 days out of the 31 days in the month under review, translating to an average daily PMS supply of 53.033 million liters.
Therefore, paying an average of N26.27 per liter on an average PMS supply of 1.591 billion liters, meant that the federal government spent N43.09 billion to subsidize PMS for Nigerians in January 2020 alone.
The amount expended as a subsidy on PMS in January represented 9.58 percent of the N306 billion budgeted for fuel subsidy in the 2020 budget of the Federal Government.
The EOMP of petrol is the price the commodity is expected to be sold to motorists if the government stops paying subsidy on the commodity. However, as of today, the subsidy is borne by the NNPC on behalf of the federation.
The NNPC, which is currently the sole importer of PMS into the country, bears the cost of subsidizing the commodity and deducts the cost from earnings from its domestic sale of crude oil and gas, before making remittances to the Federation Account.
Giving a breakdown of the Expected Open Market Price of the commodity and the amount incurred as subsidy in days the pricing templates were published, the PPPRA stated that for January 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 10, EOMP of PMS stood at N182.05 per liter, N182.28 per liter, N183.50 per liter, N179.50, N172.93 per liter and N174.52 per liter respectively, translating to subsidy of N37.05 per liter, N37.38 per liter, N38.50 per liter, N34.50 per liter, N27.93 per liter and N29.52 per liter.
For January 13 to 17, EOMP of PMS stood at N173.89 per liter, N173.95 per liter, N172.49 per liter, N173.81 per liter and N171.77 per liter respectively; leading to a subsidy of N28.89 per liter, N28.95 per liter, N27.49 per liter, N28.81 per liter and N26.77per liter respectively.
In addition, EOMP of N172.76 per liter,N173.84 per liter, N170.60 per liter, N167.56 per liter and N163.75 per liter were recorded from January20 to 24, translating to subsidy of N27.76 per liter, N28.84 per liter, N25.60 per liter, N22.56 per liter and N18.75 per liter respectively.
For December 27 to 31, the Federal Government incurred subsidy of N14.86 per liter, N17.53 per liter, N18.49 per liter, N16.15 per liter, and N15.45 per liter respectively, from EOMP of PMS of N159.86 per liter, N162.53 per liter, N163.49 per liter, N161.15 per liter and N160.45 per liter.
Hattip to Economic Confidential
