Mr Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says there is no plan to increase fuel price now or in the immediate future.
Kyari said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He noted there was a lot of anxiety around the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill into law which would, ultimately, result in the removal of petroleum subsidy.
He, however, said that the law did not set any date for implementing the subsidy removal.
According to him, structural engagements are already ongoing to ensure that the ordinary people are spared the negative effects that could arise as a result of petroleum subsidy removal.
“When you change the price of petroleum, issues affecting some other costs of commodities would arise.
“There is every indication that those who are at the bottom of the society, the poor and the vulnerable, will probably be the most impacted.
“This is also the major concern of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“So he insists that we cannot do changes to prices of Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) petroleum and not provide for the well being of ordinary people.
“Secondly, petroleum pricing is real time; as we speak, every petroleum product today is related except for PMS.
“By implication, the only provision for petroleum industry is around the price of the PMS.
“So, there is no intention of doing it (removing subsidy) tomorrow; it will not be next month, it will not be third month.
“We need to know if we have a tertiary source of fuel or have a much cheaper source of fuel that we can provide.
“Is there any specific place where we are going to transfer the benefits of petroleum subsidy to, like other sectors of the economy of much more benefit to ordinary people.
“That is very clear; we can make more roads, build more schools, and so on, instead of spending the money on subsidy that is sometimes difficult to measure in terms of value.”
The GMD, who gave assurance that the government was aware of citizens’ concern, urged members of the public to relax and not panic.
“We can confirm that there is no immediate intention to do this (remove subsidy).
“Yes, there is a long term plan; there is implementation committee of the petroleum industry which will sit down and take a long look at this.
“It could be one year of engagement to do this and we are not in the position to say that the subsidy conversation will be closed within the year and obviously it is not tomorrow or today,” Kyari said.
