A data from Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s website has revealed that the Federal Government has incurred a total sum of N56.784bn in petrol subsidy arrears since Muhammadu Buhari took over as President of the country on May 29, this year. According to the data, the country is said to be incurring petrol subsidy arrears to the tune of N47.32 per day on one litre of petrol.


Between May 29 and now, the current government has spent 30 days in office.

Based on a daily petrol consumption figure of 40 million litres, a figure supplied by the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, the total subsidy cost on the product for the 30 days the Buhari government has been in power amounts to N56.784bn at N47.32 per litre. The current PPPRA figures put the total cost of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) at N134.32 per litre, of which N118.83 is the landing cost while N15.49 is the sub-total of the margins.

According to the PPPRA, the cost of a litre of petrol with freight is N106.85; traders’ margin, N1.47; lightering expenses, N4.19; the Nigerian Ports Authority rate, N0.77; financing, N1.75; jetty depot thru’put charge, N0.80; and storage cost, N3.00. For the distribution margins, retailers are entitled to N4.60 per litre of petrol; transporters, N2.99; dealers, N1.75; bridging fund, N5.85; marine transport average, N0.15; and administrative charge, N0.15.

For the period under review, only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is said to be importing petrol because members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria have refused to import owing to subsidy arrears owed them by the Federal Government.

Oil marketers had on June 3 this year said they were still being owed over N291bn subsidy claims.