The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr.
Ibe Kachikwu says the Nigerian government has suspended the subsidy on
petroleum products as at yesterday, December 27, as a result of the current low
price of crude in the international market.
He said the non-payment of subsidy would
remain the same, as long as market trends allow.
He told reporters on Sunday in Kaduna that
if crude prices increase, there would be a review which would be tackled under
the newly introduced price modulation in the sector.
The price modulation, according to the
Minister, is not an outright removal of petrol subsidy.
The Minister had said on December 17 that
the government was not interested in the removal of subsidy on petroleum
products, but rather a price modulation that would reduce its involvement in
pricing starting 2016.
He explained that a periodical review
of the Petroleum Pricing Template and a flexible management of the pricing
system would be considered.
Few days after he announced plans for a
price modulation, he told reporters that the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation would announce a pump price of 85 Naira per litre of
petrol in January 2016.
Dr. Kachikwu said that the new pump price
was according to a PPPRA template which he signed off on Wednesday which would
be the first reflection of the price modulation that will kick off fully in the
petroleum sector by January 2016.
Following his inspection of the refinery
in Kaduna State on Sunday, two days after a tour of the Port Harcourt Refinery,
the Minister told reporters that a combined daily production of up to 10
million litres of petrol is expected from the four Nigerian refineries by
January 2016. A production that is aimed at cushioning the current scarcity of
petrol across the oil rich nation.
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