Senate condemns major marketers over demand for subsidy payment

The Senate has condemned calls by the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) for asking the Federal Government to pay for fuel subsidy claims between 2013 and 2015.

This followed the presentation of the Executive Secretary, MOMAN, Obafemi Olawore, who appeared before the Senate Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday.

Olawore asked the Federal Government to pay the areas of subsidy claims owed its members between 2013 and 2015 including the interests accrued to enable them settle the loans owed banks.

This, he said, will enable them resume importation fuel into the country.

He, however, did not state the amount owed its members, saying they would need more time to compute the figures.

“The banks are always adding their interests at the end of every month. We had a promise from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that the aspect of interest will be stopped at a certain period of 2017 but that did not come to pass, so the banks at the end of every month are charging us interest,’’ Olawore said.

He said that two out of six major marketers imported fuel into the country in 2017 to “cover some specific customer needs.

“These are mainly those that have their foreign affiliates who could cover them in terms of dollar coverage,” he added.

In his presentation, the Chief Financial Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Isiaka Razak told the Matthew Urhoghide-led panel that the oil marketers abandoned the importation of petrol due to losses.

He expressed concern that the task of importing fuel into the country was left in the hands of the NNPC alone.

He added that the NNPC was absorbing the operational losses in the course of importing fuel.

“For one year, marketers avoided importing fuel because they incurred losses. The private sector cannot bring in the product because it does not make economic sense for them. They cannot land it at a price for which they are going to sell and make profit. That is the main reason they are not bringing in the product.

“As a national oil company, the NNPC is that supplier of last resort and we must take that responsibility where the private sector who are profit driven runs away from a particular business.

“The economics is that if you bring in the product into Nigeria, you will make a loss, if there was profit in this business, the private sector would have been the ones bringing in this product.

“NNPC was designed to bring in the product 100 percent; they have stepped out but we have a national responsibility that Nigeria does not suffer and that is the role the corporation is playing by bringing in the product,’’ Razak said.

A member of the committee, Dino Melaye, accused the marketers of conniving with NNPC to defraud the Federal Government, even as another member of the panel, Bassey Akpan, condemned MOMAN boss for misleading the committee.

 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja