Govt channels N13.7 trillion to fuel subsidy in 15 years- NEITI reveals

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed that N13.7 trillion ($74.386 billion) was spent on fuel subsidy in 15 years.

This was made known by the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Ogbonnaya Orji, in a report that he presented to the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating fuel subsidy regime between 2013 and 2022 in Abuja, where he said that the amount was expended from 2005 to 2020, according to ICIR.

Breakdown of subsidy payments
According to the document presented to the House committee chaired by Hon. Ibrahim Aliyu, the subsidy payments in 2005 was N351 billion ($2.66 billion); 2006 was N219.72 billion ($1.70 billion); 2007 was N236.64 billion ($1.89 billion); 2008 was N360.18 billion ($3.03 billion); 2009 was N198.11 billion ($1.60 billion), and 2010 was N416.45 billion ($2.76 billion).

Going further into the report, the payment for 2011 was N1.9 trillion ($12.18 billion); 2012 was N690 billion ($4.34 billion); 2013 was N495 billion ($3.11 billion); 2014 was N482 billion ($2.92 billion); 2015 was N316.70 billion ($1.62 billion); 2016 was N99 billion ($0.39 billion); 2017 was N141.63 billion ($0.44 million); 2018 was N722.30 billion (2.36 billion), 2019 was N578.07 billion (1.88 billion), and finally 2020 was 134 billion (0.37 billion), Nairametrics reports.

In May 2016, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) being the sole importer of petrol, took over, making deductions from the sale of domestic crude which it termed under-recovery.

Orji in the report noted that subsidy payment expected from NNPC in 2018, was N2.294 trillion including subsidy of N722.257 billion, N138.945 billion for pipeline repairs and management cost, N28.329 billion for crude and product losses and N998.285 billion being balance that NNPC should have remitted, actual remittance stood at N897.922 billion leaving outstanding (unremitted fund) of N100.363 billion for 2018.

He added that in 2019, the sum of N2.145 trillion comprising of subsidy of N518.074 billion, N126.664 billion for pipeline repairs and management costs, N31.844 billion for crude and product losses and N1.498 trillion being balance that NNPC should have been remitted, but actual remittance stood at N821.563 billion leaving outstanding (unremitted fund) of N170.675 billion for 2019.

Also, the report stated that in 2020, payment of subsidy worth N133.74 billion, N54.49 billion for pipeline repairs and management cost, N133.06 billion for crude and product losses.

Similarly, the report stated that Domestic Crude Allocation for 2018, was 107.63 million barrels, out of which 13.581 million barrels (13%) was delivered to the refineries, 94.045 million barrels (87%) was exported under the DSDP arrangement and that NNPC was expected to make remittances within 90 days.