The new administration has abolished the corruption laden petroleum equalisation fund, PEF and the national transport allowance, NTA as well as the maritime transport allowance, MTA which together amounted to near one and half billion Naira daily, following the petrol price deregulation ordered Wednesday morning by the government.
The three items came to more than N20 per litre under the abrogated fixed price regime, according to a BusinessDay analysis.
Of the three, petroleum price equalisation fund came to N16 per litre, national transport allowance was N3.89 per litre and Maritime transport allowance came to N.15 a litre,
These collections from petrol buyers were meant to ensure that fuel was sold at the same price all over the country even this never happened apart from the fact that while the buyers paid the N16 per litre PEF levy, transporters and marketers were never paid as at when due.
According to one source, “the management of PEF and the delays in reimbursements represented a significant financial cost to petrol sellers because they are owed months and years on end.”
And it has been suggested many times that the management of this fund was subjected to a lot of corruption. It also led to the creation of large bureaucracies in government in the form of offices, cars and personnel who sank their teeth into the cash.
For instance, the Petroleum Equalisation fund Management Board is a scheduled Parastatal of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources established by Decree No.9 of 1975 (as amended by Decree No. 32 of 1989), mainly to administer Uniform Prices of Petroleum products through out the country .
It had Operational Office in Lagos, five (5) Zonal Offices as well as twenty-two (22) Depot Offices located at the 21 NNPC Depots and Marketers’ storage facilities at Apapa and Ibafon and is headed by the Executive Secretary who is the Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for the day to day operations of the fund.
