The Senate on Monday directed the Ministry of Petroleum, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and other relevant stakeholders to harmonise subsidy claims for October to December 2015.

Sen. Danjuma Goje, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, gave the directive during public hearing to consider the request of President Muhammadu Buhari for N465 billion supplementary budget.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that out of the N465 billion, N413 billion is for payment of subsidy from January to September 2015.

Goje also asked the NNPC to furnish the committee with the breakdown of the amount to be paid to each of the independent marketers.

He queried why the supplementary budget did not include funds for payment of subsidy for the last quarter of 2015.

He said that the nation could not risk another scarcity of petroleum products due to non-payment for the months.

The chairman expressed displeasure at the seeming lack of synergy between the relevant stakeholders and directed them to go back and harmonise their figures and submit same not later than 3p.m. on Monday.

Credit: NAN