Nigerian government owes NNPC some N170.6 billion in outstanding subsidy payments withheld for at least nine years, the corporation said Monday.

The debts come from subsidies government was meant to have paid NNPC from January 2006 to December 2015, said NNPC group managing director Maikanti Baru.

The National Assembly is investigating N5 trillion owed NNPC in subsidy payments from 2006 till last year.

According to a statement from the corporation, the GMD said the figure was arrived at after deduction of N4.950 trillion received as payments from the N5.121 trillion approved subsidy claims of the corporation from January 2006 to December 2015.

Providing details of the accruals, Chief Financial Officer of the corporation, Mr. Isiaka AbdulRazaq, traced the advent of the subsidy regime to October, 2003 when NNPC was directed by government to commence the purchase of domestic crude oil at international market price without a corresponding liberalization of the regulated price of petroleum products.

The statement signed by spokesman of the corporation Ndu Ughamadu explained that under the subsidy regime, NNPC and other suppliers of refined petroleum products were entitled to file subsidy claims to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).