N30bn petrol subsidy frustrates marketers— Official
By Uthman Salami
An oil Marketing firm, A-Z Petroleum Products Ltd claimed that the Federal Ministry of Finance has handicapped its operation on sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as Petrol over unpaid N30 billion subsidy claims, having paid other marketers.
The Head of Business Development, Mr Hafford Udochukwu made the revelation at a public hearing organised by the House Ad hoc Committee in Abuja.
The Ad hoc committee is constituted to ascertain the actual daily sale of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Nigeria.
Udochukwu, while speaking at the event said in 2015, the company bought 12 cargos containing 245.89 million litres of PMS, 26.27 million litres in 2017 and 26.64 million litres in 2018.
“We have not been paid since 2017, because of that we stopped trading in PMS. We are being owed over 30 billion Naira by the government for subsidy differentials and because of that we have stopped trading.
“We have not been trading on PMS, we are kind of handicapped, severally we have written to the Ministry, they have paid others, but we have not been paid.
“In fact, we went to court two months ago. We are asking the committee to prevail on the Ministry of Finance so that they can pay us the outstanding,’’ he said.
Udochukwu said that the company has over four thousand employees on its payroll which they have been sustaining all these years, but it was becoming difficult.
On its part, the committee decried the development, warning that it was unacceptable as a lot of money, running into trillions, had been appropriated for the sub-head.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Abdulkadir Abdullahi (APC-Kano), asked the company to provide the committee with all necessary documents and pledged to look into the matter.
The Chairman directed the management of Virgin Forest Energy and Oando to appear before the committee on Monday, August 15, 2022.
He ordered the companies to appear with proof of any payment made and other relevant documents on the quantity of PMS they deal in.
The Committee also summoned the Managing Director of Ash Group Energy Ltd, a member of the DSGP Contract Consortium, which has Jack Energy Solutions Ltd as member, and Vitol AS Ltd as the lead.
The Managing Director of the group, it said, was summoned to appear on Aug. 16 to explain its operations and account for the volume of PMS imported.
Abdullahi said that the committee would request that NNPC should suspend the operations of the consortium pending the outcome of the hearing.
