The Group General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, on Thursday said the Federal Government subsidizes Premium Motor Spirit with about N120bn monthly.

The Group General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, on Thursday said the Federal Government subsidizes Premium Motor Spirit with about N120bn monthly.

He said while the actual cost of importation and handling charges amounts to N234 per litre the government had been selling at N162 per litre therefore bearing the difference.

Kyari spoke at the weekly ministerial briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he said the NNPC could no longer afford to bear the cost, saying Nigerians would have to pay the actual cost sooner or later.

He argued that market forces must be allowed to determine the pump price of petrol in the country.

Although he claimed the nation was not in a subsidy regime, he said the government was trying to exit what he described as ‘under-price sale of PMS’.

The NNPC boss explained that upon full implementation of deregulation, he expected that all oil marketing companies would commence import, thereby lifting the import burden off the corporation.