The National Economic Council (NEC) has proposed that price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol should be sold to Nigerians at N302 per litre in February 2022.
The recommendations were put forward by the NEC ad-hoc committee interfacing with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the appropriate pricing of PMS in Nigeria. The report was presented by Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state and head of the committee.
The recommendations read in parts “At current rates, the PMS subsidy is reducing transfers into the federation by about NGN 250 billion per month, and could, if PMS subsidies are not eliminated, result in deductions of NGN 3 trillion in 2022,” the committee’s resolution reads in part.
“The large-scale time-limited (6-months) cash transfer proposed as a way of transferring the subsidy “directly to the people” would cost N600 billion but would by paving the way for the elimination of PMS subsidies, enable the federation to recover N3 trillion in revenues that would otherwise go to PMS subsidies.
“If PMS subsidies are eliminated by February 2022, N250 billion in deductions would have been incurred, but the remaining N195 billion in anticipated PMS subsidy deductions could be redirected towards FGN funding of the cash-transfer programme.”
Petrol price is currently between N162 and N165 per litre in Nigeria.