Tag Archives: Subsidy Payment

Fuel Scarcity Bites Harder Despite N407bn Subsidy Payment

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Fuel queues continue to mount in many parts of the country despite the recent payment of N407 billion subsidy claims to marketers.
The queues are worsening in Abuja, Kano and many states, both in the north and south of the country.
Nigerians intending to travel home for the Christmas and New Year celebrations have started to voice concerns about the lingering fuel shortages.
In states like Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, Nasarawa, River, Enugu and Niger, petrol is sold above the government regulated price of N87 per litre.
The federal government had last week released N407 billion as subsidy to oil marketers. Before the payment, the marketers attributed the scarcity to non-release of the fund but there has been no respite for motorists as the long queues continue in most filling stations, indicating that Nigerians may spend the Christmas searching for petrol.
In Abuja, there were long queues of vehicles yesterday at the Conoil and Total filling stations opposite the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) headquarters at the Central Area, leading to obstruction of traffic. Similar scenes were observed at all other fuel stations that dispensed the product within Abuja city centre and suburbs.

Fresh Fuel Scarcity Looms As Marketers Demand N291bn Subsidy Payment

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All have not yet settled in the over three weeks acute shortage of petrol in the country.

This time the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) is claiming that government is yet to indicate when it will pay the outstanding subsidy of about N291billion

The DAPPMA in a statement by its executive secretary, Femi Adewole, in Lagos yesterday, recalled the aftermath of the Senate Committees’ meeting with major petroleum industry stakeholders which successfully persuaded the petroleum tanker drivers (PTD), NUPENG and NARTO to call off their strike on May 25, 2015, and resume loading of fuel from the various depots that had stock.

Depot owners and other fuel importers under the ‘petroleum subsidy scheme,’ he said, were still being owed billions of naira in unpaid subsidy reimbursement, interest on delayed payment and foreign exchange differentials. This much, Adewole said, was expressed to the DAPPMA and MOMAN by the former minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, Mrs Okonjo Iweala, in her letter to both associations, a copy of which she also released to the Senate Committees for reference.He stated, however, that the letter did not state the timeline for the re-verification exercise which the minister instituted on the amount she disputed and also did not state the expected date of payment which the petroleum subsidy fund (PSF) participants had been clamouring for in all the meetings held with her since February 2015.

According to him, “It should be noted that this is the first time since the establishment of the petroleum subsidy fund scheme that marketers will not have ready and easy access to fuel import loans and it is also the first time that commercial banks will notify importers that based on CBN regulations, importers have attained their credit ceilings with their various banks and would have to make some refunds on the existing loans to the sector prior to being funded for petrol imports. Unfortunately the expected refund to the banks is yet to be reimbursed by the federal government.Due to debts owed transporters by marketers, who have been experiencing serious financial stress due to outstanding debts owed them by the federal government as a result of petrol imports under the petroleum subsidy scheme, the PTD, NUPENG and NARTO had at various times protested non-payment of their freight charges by withdrawing their services,” he said.

He regretted that the action of the transporters had caused some persons to insinuate that marketers are blackmailers holding the nation to ransom via a strike about which they know nothing.

“The DAPPMA’s initial assertion on petrol importers and marketers who participate in the petrol subsidy scheme and are therefore entitled to subsidy reimbursement is based on the widely circulated payment list from the Federal Ministry of Finance which was published in several newspapers. The publication detailed payees and other PSF scheme participants even when there was no payment due to them and the name of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited was conspicuously missing,” Adewole declared.

Credit: leadership