Oil Subsidy: FG owes oil marketers N521 bn, not N465 bn, says Oil ministry

The country may be in for another round of fuel scarcity crisis as it was discovered yesterday that a fresh N108 billion covering three months fuel subsidy claims was not contained in the 2015 supplementary.
A permanent secretary in the Petroleum Resources Ministry, MrsJamilaSuara made the disclosure during a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Appropriation to consider the request of President Muhammadu Buhari for a N465 billion 2015 supplementary budget.
Buhari had in the supplementary budget, requested for approval of N413billion for payment of subsidy from January to September 2015. With an additional N108 billion covering the months of October, November and December, oil marketers are now being owed N521 billion in subsidy claims.
The Senate Committee on Appropriation chaired by Sen. Danjuma Goje directed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other relevant stakeholders to harmonise all budget claims to include payment for October to December 2015.
The Senate also asked the NNPC to breakdown the details of the amounts being paid to each of the independent marketers rather than the blanket sum that was submitted.
The Senate queried why the supplementary did not include the last quarter of 2015 stressing that the country could not risk another scarcity of petroleum products due to non-payment for the months.
Mrs. Suara disclosed that major oil marketers imported 52 per cent of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) while the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC was importing 48 per cent.
Given a breakdown of the proposed N413 billion, she said that N120.552 billion was amounts outstanding from 2014 and N292.8 billion for subsidy from January to September 2015.
“We just called the attention of the budget office to the fact that the proposal for the last quarter had not really been captured because it was about N108 billion,” she said.
She pleaded for the understanding of the Committee stressing that the documents were prepared before the minister and permanent secretary assumed office.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, MrUdoUdoma, requested that the ministry, Ministry of Petroleum and Finance Ministry be allowed to meet and reconcile the figures.