The House of Representatives on
Wednesday resolved to invite the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr
Ibe Kachikwu, to explain the payment of N300 billion subsidy on Premium Motor
Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol, without approval from the National
Assembly.
The House also asked the Group
Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Maikanti
Baru, and the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
(PPPRA), Mr Abdulkadir Umar, to appear before its Committees on Finance and
Petroleum Resources.
Adopting a motion moved under
matters of urgent public importance by Rep. Sunday Karimi (Kogi), the members
urged the Federal Government to make provision for subsidy payment in the 2018
Appropriation Bill, if it is interested in continuing with the payment of
subsidy on petrol.
Leading the debate on the motion,
Karimi pointed out that between January and December the federal government
through the NNPC claimed to have spent over N300 billion on payment of subsidy
for petrol.
He described the payment made
without the approval of the parliament as a breach of Section 4 of the 1999
Constitution which provided that no money should be withdrawn from the
federation account except as prescribed by the National Assembly.
“In December 2017, the Vice
President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and the Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, have both admitted that the current landing cost of
petrol is N171 per litre despite the fact that the Federal Government has pegged
official rate at N145 per litre.
“At the moment, it is the NNPC
that is paying for the cost or deferential of N26 per litre despite the fact
that government has posited that it has removed petroleum subsidy in the 2017
Appropriation Act.
“NNPC conceded that fuel subsidy
has returned because between January and March 2017, the corporation recorded
an `under recovery’ of N46.86 billion and this trend continued at an increasing
rate all through 2017.
“Under Recovery implies that
expected open market price of PMS, which includes cost of importation and
distribution of the commodity such as marketers margin, landing costs and
freight cost is below the approved retail price. As a result, NNPC has been
absorbing the extra cost and paying subsidy by itself.
“The 1999 Constitution (as
amended) prescribes that no monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated
revenue fund or any other public fund of the federation, except in a manner
prescribed by the National Assembly.
“As such, the payment of subsidy
by the NNPC without appropriation or consent by National Assembly is illegal
and unconstitutional,” Karimi said.
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Contributing to the motion, Rep.
Ahman Pategi faulted NNPC for paying subsidy to tune of 300 billion in 2017
without recourse to the parliament.
He said “probably NNPC is paying
the subsidy to itself.
“This problem cannot be resolved
so long as the price of crude is increasing’’.
On his part, the Deputy Chief
Whip, Pally Iriase called for the full deregulation of the downstream sector to
curb the corruption currently associated with it and open it up for private
investment.
However, the Chairman House
Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Rep. Joseph Akinlaja said that
the N300 billion paid to marketers are areas of subsidy owed them by the
federal government.
He, however, said that the
marketers were agitating that they were still owed by the federal government.
Rep. Johnson Agbonayima said that
the resuscitation of the country’s refineries can address the crises in the
petroleum industry.
“Today, no refinery is working
and I believe that something needs to be done,’’ he added.
Subsidy kwa. Ooh. But dem tell us say no more subsidy. What are they subsidizing again. This government sef.
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