Senate Okays N348b for Oil Subsidy Payment to 74 Marketers

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The sum of N348 billion was on Wednesday approved by the Senate for the payment of outstanding oil subsidy claims to 74 petroleum marketers in the country.

This followed adoption of the interim report of its Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) on the Promissory Note Programme and Bond Issuance to Settle Inherited Local Debts and Contractual Obligations to Petroleum Marketers.

Chairman of the committee, Mr Kabir Marafa, informed his colleagues that although marketers made claims to the tune of N670.5 billion as at June 30, 2017, the PPPRA verified and approved the sum of N429.1 billion to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

A breakdown of the payment showed that 55 oil marketers will get N275.8 billion from the approved N348 billion, while 19 others will get N73.5 billion.

The committee recommended that 55 oil marketers should be paid 100 percent of their claims while 65 percent claims should be paid to 19 marketers due to irregularities in their claims.

The Senate asked the committee to continue its engagement with the Ministry of Finance, oil marketing companies, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and other stakeholders in order to update all the outstanding liabilities and clear all outstanding debts, interests accrued and forex differential once and for all.