Oil subsidy gulps N1.185tr in 3 years says PPPRA

The Petroleum  Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has disclosed that it expended a whopping =N=1.185 trillion on fuel subsidy between 2006 and 2008.
Acting Executive Secretary of the agency, Mr. Wole Adamolekun made the disclosure when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts in Abuja last week.
According to Adamolekun, a total subsidy of N272.713 billion was expended in 2006 out of which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) got N243.603 billion while oil majors and independent marketers received N19.212 billion.
But reading form the figures that were made available to the committee, its chairman, 
Reading from the figures that were given to his committee by the PPPRA, its chairman, Senator Ahmed Lawan Ibrahim said that “in 2007, the people of Nigeria, through their government, paid a total subsidy of N278.86 billion; NNPC took N227.47 billion and the oil majors and independent marketers received N51.388 billion.
“Last year (2008) a total subsidy of N633.192 billion was paid, out of which NNPC received N370.490 billion and oil majors and marketers received N260.08 billion.
“NNPC, in the three years that you (PPPRA) administered the subsidy, received N841.536 billion while oil majors and independent marketers received N330.016 billion, and a total of N1.185 trillion was paid as subsidy in the last three years,” he said.
Lawan, who queried Adamolekun on the subsidy, also asked him if the current pump price of N65 per litre for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) (petrol) is the correct and right price for Nigerians to pay in the face of the crash in crude oil price in the international market.
Adamolekun said that the Federal Government was still subsidsing fuel consumption by N2.72 per litre at the pump price of N65 per litre. 
According to him, “you raised the issue of what government has done since the reduction in the price of crude oil.  The issue of the price in 2007 rising up to $147 per barrel was worrisome but somehow the price started coming down and it did not really come down below the N70 set price until November last year”.