By Adedapo Adesanya
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has disclosed that the federal government paid a total of N43.09 billion as fuel subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol in the month of January 2020.
This means that in January, the government paid an average N26.27 on every litre of the commodity to enable Nigerians buy the product at a pump price of N145 per litre, while at N171.27 per litre at the Expected Open Market Price (EOMP).
In its monthly PMS Pricing Templates and Daily Truck-Out data, the agency stated that the amount paid for subsidy was lower by 22.5 percent compared with amount paid in December 2019, N55.6 billion.
With a total of over 1.6 billion litres of petrol supplied in the month, the federal government subsidy of N26.27 means a total of N43 billion was expended as subsidy in the first month of the year.
PPPRA noted that the total amount expended as subsidy on PMS in January represented 9.58 percent of the N306 billion budgeted for fuel subsidy in the 2020 budget of the federal government.
Giving a breakdown of the EOMP and its subsidies, it was revealed that for January 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 10; EOMP of PMS stood at N182.05 per litre, N182.28 per litre, N183.50 per litre, N179.50, N172.93 per litre and N174.52 per litre respectively, translating to subsidy of N37.05 per litre, N37.38 per litre, N38.50 per litre, N34.50 per litre, N27.93 per litre and N29.52 per litre.
For January 13 to 17, EOMP of PMS stood at N173.89 per litre, N173.95 per litre, N172.49 per litre, N173.81 per litre and N171.77 per litre respectively; leading to subsidy of N28.89 per litre, N28.95 per litre, N27.49 per litre, N28.81 per litre and N26.77 per litre respectively.
In addition, EOMP of N172.76 per litre,N173.84 per litre, N170.60 per litre, N167.56 per litre and N163.75 per litre were recorded from January 20 to 24, translating to subsidy of N27.76 per litre, N28.84 per litre, N25.60 per litre, N22.56 per litre and N18.75 per litre respectively.
While for December 27 to 31, the Federal Government incurred subsidy of N14.86 per litre, N17.53 per litre, N18.49 per litre, N16.15 per litre, and N15.45 per litre respectively, from EOMP of PMS of N159.86 per litre, N162.53 per litre, N163.49 per litre, N161.15 per litre and N160.45 per litre.
Now, with a decline in the prices of crude oil at the international market in February 2020 caused by coronavirus spread, it is believed that the subsidy paid for the month should be lower.
Dipo Olowookere