… says queues will not last beyond Saturday
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission Limited, Mele Kyari, has said that the subsidy regime has vanished since February 2022.
Mr. Kyari stated this in an interview on Politics Today, a programme aired on Channels Television, on Thursday evening.
The NNPCL boss, who was responding to the notion that the subsidy regime should have rather ended in June 2023, stated that the law provided that the prices of premium motor spirits be sold at normal market prices six months after the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act, adding that the government had “decided to spend on its citizens, which is why it was going to extend the appropriation until June 2023.
“By the provisions of the PIA, the subsidy regime vanished on the 17th of February, 2022. The law states that six months after the enactment of the PIA, petroleum products, particularly PMS must be priced at market rates”
“By law, the subsidy regime is gone by February 17, 2022. But of course, the government can always decide to spend on its citizens, in the manner that it wants. There are subsidies on bread, fertiliser, and all kinds of other things all over the world. But the government in its wisdom, decided that there would be an appropriation for subsidy in 2022, and also provision for subsidy till the second half of 2023. That means that provision is made, but the law still applies in the market”.
He, however, said that the government could only spend what it had, stating that the “government did not fund the subsidy because it didn’t have the money to fund it.”
Kyari also said that he didn’t see the queues across the country, staying beyond Saturday, stating that there was an adequate supply of fuel in depots, towns, and fuel stations across the country.
“I do not see it staying beyond Saturday. The key problem with the PMS system is supply, so I have supplied it. There are over 810 million litres of PMS, or petrol in depots, and in towns and fuel stations across the country,” he said.
