The Federal Government is still in negotiations with the organized Labour as regards the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, it was gathered on Sunday.
Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority stated that the removal of subsidy on petrol had been an explosive issue.
This, they said had made the government engage in negotiations with the organised labour on the matter despite the persistent rise in the amount being spent on subsidy amidst the recent increase in global crude oil prices.
Last week, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the World Bank projected that Nigeria would spend about N4tn on petrol subsidy in 2022, as oil marketers also stated that the amount could rise to N6tn going by the rise in the price of crude oil.
The NNPC being the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria for about four years has been shouldering the subsidy burden over the years, although it often describes this as under-recovery. When asked on Sunday if the company would be able to sustain the mounting petrol subsidy cost, the spokesperson of NNPC, Garba-Deen Muhammad, told our correspondent that subsidy was now a policy issue.
