Activities of fuel smugglers across Nigeria’s borders to neighbouring countries may have cost the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) whooping N4bn going by the current retail price of PMS in the country.
Speaking recently at a stakeholders meeting organised by the NNPC on how to stop smuggling in the country, GMD of the corporation, Mele Kyari disclosed that smuggling across the borders increased the daily consumption of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to 103 million litres per day in May.
Blueprint gathered that the current official petrol consumption remains at 52 million litres, meaning the extra 51 million litres suspected to have been smuggled out of the country in a day may have cost the country over N4 billion in subsidy payments.
As at April the expected retail price of petrol is N239.31 per litre subtracted from the current pump price of N162 per litre; it indicates a subsidy of N77.31 per litre for the 51 million liters.
Also speaking at the meeting, Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum stated that the current figure of consumption was 52 million litres, raising fear that 51 million litres of the product were lost to theft or smuggling in the month of May.
“When I first came in as minister, I was informed that the daily consumption in the country was around 60 to 62 million litres a day, which to me sounded a little bit outrageous considering the number of cars we have on the road”
