Senate Approves N129bn Subsidy Payment For 67 Oil Marketers

The Senate has approved N129 billion as final subsidy arrears claim to 67 oil marketing companies. This approval brought the total of all three approvals given by the Senate on subsidy payments between July last year and now to N545.9bn. The approval followed the adoption of the report of the Committee on Petroleum (downstream), chaired by Sen Kabiru Garba Marafa (APC, Zamfara). The Senate last Tuesday approved another N68.9bn for 19 oil marketers, bringing the total to N416.9bn. The Senate also commended the Federal Government for its commitment to clear all subsidy arrears claims in order to put an end to all issues concerning subsidy payments. Some of the oil companies to benefit from the latest approval included A. A. Rano, ASCON, Aiteo, Total Nigeria Plc, MRS Oil Plc, MRS Oil and Gas Ltd, Forte Oil Plc, Mobil Oil Nigeria, NIPCO Plc, Oando Plc, Rahamaniyya Oil, Imad Oil and Gas Ltd. The committee in its report observed that all subsidy arrears claims were based on three inter-related elements of subsidy, Forex differential and bank interest. It said the recent request computation was based on Forex differential. The panel equally observed that due to scarcity of foreign exchange within the period, oil marketers were allowed to source Forex outside the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rate to enable them meet the country’s petroleum products demand. But the panel said all NNPC retailers got their product allocations directly from the Petroleum Products Pricing Marketing Company (PPPMC) at already subsidized rate, therefore did not require Forex to do transaction.