|
The Federal Government has released fresh N56.80bn as subsidy claims to oil marketers. The payment was confirmed by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday in Abuja. The minister, in a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, said the fresh N56.8bn brought the total amount released so far for the 2013 fiscal period to N192.50bn. According to the statement, 19 oil marketers with about 39 claims benefited from the fresh subsidy payment. The companies include AITEO Energy Resources Limited; ASCON Oil Company Limited; A-Z Petroleum Products Limited; BOVAS and Company; Folawiyo Energy Limited; Forte Oil Plc; Gulf Treasures Limited; and Integrated Oil and Gas Limited. Others are Masters Energy Oil and Gas Limited; Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc; NIPCO Plc; Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Limited; RainOil Limited; Sahara Energy Resources Limited; Shorelink Oil and Gas Services Limited; Swift Oil Limited; Techno Oil Limited and Total Nigeria Plc. The statement said the payment was made in line with the commitment of the Federal Ministry of Finance to manage fuel subsidy payments in a transparent and efficient manner that would protect and enhance the interests of the Nigerian people. Okonjo-Iweala said, “The Federal Ministry of Finance makes payments based on batches of claims as submitted by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency. “In addition, earlier in the year, a total of N135.69bn was paid to oil marketers in respect of verified 2011 and 2012 arrears. Thus, the total amount paid to oil marketers so far in 2013 is N192.502bn.” The newspaper had exclusively reported on June 7 that about N100bn subsidy arrears were owed major and independent marketers responsible for 67 per cent of petrol imports into the country. The marketers had cried out about their inability to continue to import petrol into the country due to non-payment of the N100bn subsidy claims meant for the first and second quarters of this year. With a daily petrol consumption of 38.298 million litres, analysts had warned of an impending scarcity of the product if the N100bn subsidy debt was not paid. Findings showed that the marketers were struggling to meet their obligation of importing 67 per cent of the country’s daily fuel demand amid non-payment of their subsidy claims by the Ministry of Finance.
The Punch June 18, Page 27.
Follow this link to go back the page you were previously looking at.
|
|
