The Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, has explained why it pays ‘subsidy’ on petrol without
appropriation from the National Assembly.
Managing Director of the
Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, an NNPC arm, Umar Ajiya, said the
NNPC Act is a law on its own which the corporation implements with or without
the National Assembly.
Ajiya told Channels Television on
Friday that the NNPC has the right to run its finances independently.
He admitted that the corporation
has been paying N26 due to differentials in land landing cost and approved
selling price but declined to tag it subsidy.
“For us, it’s not a question of
subsidy, we don’t know about subsidy. It was not budgeted for but the act
establishing us, the National Assembly knows clearly that in that same act,
there is a provision that we can run our operation and recover our cost fully.
“There is a difference between
the landing cost and the price we are selling but what we are saying is that is
part of our core structure.
“The NNPC act is a law on itself
and the National Assembly is the one responsible for enacting laws, so, if
there is any remedy or solution; as one of the senators, the issue is look into
the Act establishing these entities; NNPC,CBN etc.”
The PPMC boss attributed the
recent fuel queues to poor transportation system in the country, which has
hampered smooth circulation of products, and dubious purchase in major cities.
He said, “For the last one week,
there is no blessed day that trucks do not fall off the road between Jebba and
Mokwa and this is the link way where these products are brought from the depot
especially from the south to the north, especially Abuja.
“We had to mobilise to do
palliative repairs and pull off the trucks to ensure that trucks move. On top
of that, the channels from which we transport these products from the ships
offshore Lagos to Warri was blocked by another vessel. We equally have to
mobilise together with the owner of the vessel to try to remove that ship. That
channel has not been dredged for a long time.
“Two, there is an issue of
capacity to regulate effectively the price cap. DPR is trying its best but what
is happening is that in the major cities of this country where you have the
major marketers, and also the mega stations of NNPC, people get the fuel for
N145 but when you go to the outskirts of the city, it is sold beyond that price
and as such, motorists come into the city early morning to queue up and late in
the evening, refuel their gas and go back. It reached a stage that the taxi
drivers have now found a very lucrative job of buying the fuel in the city and
going back to the outskirts to sell at high price.”
He was, however, quick to add
that these problems were inherited from previous administrations.
“These are consequences of
inherited state of infrastructure we are living with. The administration also
inherited an empty treasury. So, we couldn’t overnight repair all these roads.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com