BEVERLY HILLS, December 01 (THEWILL) – The Ministries of Petroleum Resources, Budget and National Planning and Finance have been directed by the Senate to reconcile their records and include an additional N108bn to the N465.3bn supplementary budget which President Muhammadu Buhari had submitted to the National Assembly a fortnight ago.
Read More: Senate Seeks Increase In Supplementary Budget
Handing this directive on Monday, the Senate Committee on Appropriation explained that the additional amount was the subsidy claims accruing to major oil marketers between October and December 2015, but was not included in the N413bn subsidy claims due from January to September 2015.
The committee equally tasked the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to furnish it with the details of the N437bn which had so far been paid to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as subsidy claims but was not budgeted for by the National Assembly.
Speaking at a meeting with the ministers and heads of Federal Government agencies, Chairman of the committee, Senator Danjuma Goje, stated that intelligent reports at the committee’s disposal indicate that the petroleum ministry was seeking an approval of N413bn out of the total N950bn accrued subsidy.
He declared that while the ministry had paid the subsidy claims demanded by the NNPC, as first-line charge being its share for the 48 per cent of the fuel it imported, the subsidies due to the oil marketers had been withheld.
Goje explained that the inclusion of the N108bn would enable the Senate to approve the money so as to ease off tension and prevent the oil marketers from holding the nation to ransom during the festive season as a result of the outstanding debts.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Jamila Suara, had told the committee that she was standing in for the Minister of State, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who was in Lagos to hold meetings with major oil marketers.
Explaining that her ministry’s proposal was N413bn, being a component of N120.552bn outstanding for 2014 and N292.8bn for subsidy from January to September 2015, she said, “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 N108bn. When we started discussion on it, it was much earlier in the year; hence, the tidying up was not completed.”
On his part, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim observed that there was no clear synergy between the Ministry of Budget and the Petroleum Resources Ministry.
He went on to seek clarification if the N413bn figure included the exchange rate differential and the accumulated interest being claimed by the importers or whether they were agreed figures between them and their bankers.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Tayo Alasoadura, who questioned the details of the subsidy request, requested that the exact payment due to each of the major oil marketers should be highlighted for the purpose of oversight.
Senator Goje then explained that the ministry had been requested to provide the details of the issues relating to subsidy payment from the last quarter of 2014 till date, stressing that, “We need the audit details for the purpose of oversight. Nothing stops us from going back to the issues even after the approval of the supplementary budget. We need to know the beneficiaries of the subsidy, and how they came about it.”
The Chairman of the Appropriation committee requested the Permanent Secretary to guarantee his panel that the oil marketers would not hold the nation to ransom during the festive season because of the outstanding N108bn subsidy claims.
For the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr. Udo Udoma, his ministry should be allowed to liaise with that of Petroleum Resources and the Finance for the purpose of including the additional N108bn in the supplementary budget.
This suggestion was approved by the committee which asked Udoma to coordinate the process and submit the report by 3pm on Monday.
According to Goje, “Our committee will submit the report at plenary on Tuesday (today). So, we are doing everything within our powers to ensure that we beat the deadline, hence we invited all the stakeholders to make a final input into the budget. We want to ensure that the issue of fuel scarcity becomes a thing of the past in this country.”
Stating that “from our own intelligence, the total subsidy today is about N950bn,” the Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas and also a member of the Appropriation Committee, Senator Bassey Akpan said, “What the NNPC and PPRA are reporting is the subsidy due to major oil marketers alone. Major oil marketers import 52 per cent while NNPC imports 48 percent.
“So, the subsidy that the NNPC is presenting, in our opinion, is subsidy due to oil majors only and we asked what is the subsidy due to the NNPC on the basis of their own importation of 48 percent of the total fuel consumption in the country?” he asked.
The lawmaker continued that the committee had agreed with the Petroleum Resources ministry that the major oil marketers will take care of the exchange rate differential with the oil majors.
About the Author
