- The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, has revealed that a huge sum of N774 million is being spent daily on subsiding petrol
- Baru said the firm spends the amount on subsidising 50 million litres of petrol consumed in the country everyday
- The cause of this, according to the firm, is the proliferation of petrol stations in communities with international land and coastal borders across the country
The group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, has disclosed that huge sum of N774 million is being spent daily on subsiding 50 million litres of petrol consumed across the country everyday.
Describing the amount as 'under-recovery', Baru said that the huge fund was due to the proliferation of petrol stations in communities with international land and coastal borders across the country, Punch reports.
NAIJ.com noted that Baru stated that the proliferation of filling stations had given way to cross-border smuggling of petrol to neighbouring countries, making it difficult to sanitise the fuel supply and distribution matrix in Nigeria.
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The NNPC group managing director made this disclosure when he led a management team of the corporation on a visit to the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service, Colonel Hameed Ali (retd).
According to him, detailed study conducted by NNPC indicated strong correlation between the presence of the frontier stations and the activities of fuel smugglers, adding that the activities of the smugglers led to the recent abnormal surge in the evacuation of petrol from less than 35 million litres per day to more than 60 million litres per day, which was in sharp contrast with established national consumption pattern.
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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the Senate committee on petroleum downstream blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the fuel scarcity experienced across the country between December 2017 and January 2018.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Kabiru Marafa, made the statement on Monday, January 1, in Gusau, Zamfara state during an assessment of fuel situation in the country.
He said there was a short supply of petroleum products at NNPC depots visited.
Marafa said: “I have directed all members of this committee to go back to their constituencies to investigate the problem at the grassroots so that we take measures to address the scarcity."
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Source: Naija.ng