The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has admitted that the Federal Government is owing it N7.8trillion in petrol subsidy.
The NNPC disclosed this on Monday, after it initially denied the existence of petrol subsidy.
President Bola Tinubu had approved a request by NNPC to utilise the 2023 final dividends due to the federation to pay for the petrol subsidy.
But during a media briefing on the company’s 2023 Audited Financial Statements (AFS) in Abuja, Umar Ajiya, NNPC’s Chief Financial Officer, said the company was only “taking care of the shortfall on petrol importation between it and the federation”.
Ajiya told Bloomberg after the company announced its results, that the NNPC is owed N7.8 trillion ($4.9 billion) by the government in subsidy debts from January to July.
The NNPC’s chief financial officer said the government will allow NNPC to offset about N2.2 trillion it owes the country against the subsidy debt.
In June, when fiscal policy documents were in circulation, which cited N5.4 trillion petrol subsidy provision for 2023, Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, said the documents were not approved by the government.
It was reported that President Bola Tinubu was considering a “temporary subsidy” on petrol as crude oil prices and foreign exchange rates.
However, Ajuri Ngelale, presidential spokesperson, said there was no reintroduction of subsidy.
Earlier this year, NNPC denied the return of petrol subsidy, saying it had been removed entirely.
Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, said the federal government was spending more on petrol subsidy than before.
Also, Gabriel Ogbechie, Chief Executive Officer of Rainoil Limited, claimed the government now spends N600 billion on petrol subsidy monthly.
