Subsidy: NNPC to deduct N114bn from June remittance to FAAC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it will deduct N114.3bn from its June remittance to the Federation Account and Allocation Committee due in July.

In April, the corporation had written the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, that it would not make any remittance to the FAAC in May.

The NNPC had also deducted N126.2 billion from remittance to FAAC in June.

A report by THISDAY quoted a document obtained from the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning that detailed the NNPC’s presentation to the committee, which took place between June 22 and 23.

The corporation said it had continued to bear the burden of the underpriced sales of premium motor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol.

Signed by Bello Abdullahi, on behalf of Umar Isa Ajiya, chief financial officer, the document showed that N50 billion, which is part of the corporation’s financial obligations to its Joint Venture (JV) partners, meant to have been subtracted from the latest round of deductions remains pending.

“The sum of N126,298,457,944.36 was deducted as value shortfall resulting from the difference between the landing cost and ex-coastal price of PMS (petrol) recorded in April 2021,” the document stated.

“In addition, May value shortfall of N114,337,097,352.49 is to be deducted from June federation proceeds in July 2021 FAAC meeting. Also, the balance of March 2021 value shortfall of N50,000,000,000.00 remains outstanding.”

The NNPC remitted a marginal net sum of N29.647 billion to FAAC in May, which was shared in June, as opposed to its zero contribution in April, its N90.860 billion in January, N64.161 billion in February and N41.184 billion in March.

According to the document, the NNPC has been able to contribute a net sum of N225.852 billion to the federation for the year, out of its yearly projected remittance of N1.473 trillion and monthly value addition of N122.7 billion, leaving a variance of N820.684 billion.

Recently, Mele Kyari, group managing director of NNPC, had said that with the current exchange rate, the pump price of petrol should be N256 per litre.

“I know that so much work is going on, and then we have to manage the volume that we are exposed to between this price of N162 and N256. The difference comes back to as much as N140 billion to N150 billion cost to the country monthly,” he had said.