Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) bears the cost of fuel subsidy and not the federal government.

NAN reports that the vice-president clarified this on Monday while answering questions from journalists after visiting the Oando and Total depot in Apapa, Lagos.

“NNPC is trading in fuel; the federal government is not, at the moment, paying for any subsidy. NNPC is trading,” he said.

“If you are buying and selling fuel, you would have to be able to pay for it. So, it’s not a question of government provision for subsidy, the federal government, at the moment, isn’t paying any subsidy.

“And don’t forget that the way that the NNPC trades is that, in many cases, NNPC is actually giving fuel; there is 445,000 barrels of fuel.

“So really what you are seeing, in many cases, is more or less an exchange for PMS. So at the moment NNPC is paying the cost.”

While speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Maikanti Baru, NNPC group managing director, had said that the landing cost of petrol is now N171 as against the official retail price of N145.

TheCable had reported that this would mean that the federal government would have to pay N40.70 as subsidy on every litre of petrol imported to retain the retail price of N145.

Thecableng