The Senate has moved to interrogate the fuel subsidy and under recovery regime of the Federal Government till May 29, 2023, when subsidy was eventually removed.
The upper chamber decried the N9.3 trillion so far spent on the subsidy regime by the government from January 2021 to June 2023.
This is as it seeks a living wage for workers as a way of cushioning the effects of fuel subsidy removal and as well, seeks establishment of three functional refineries for local production and distribution of refined fuel with a view to bringing down the pump price from N540 per litre to between N300 and N350 per litre.
Senate’s resolutions to these effect were sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Chiwuba Ndubueze (APC, Imo North).
Ndubueze in the motion titled ‘Need to investigate the controversial huge expenditure on premium motor spirit (PMS) under the subsidy/under recovery regime by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)’, said the step taken by President Bola Tinubu on subsidy withdrawal in May was commendable but the regime needs to be investigated.
He specifically submitted that while within 10 years (2006 – 2015), the Federal Government through NNPCL, claimed N170 billion as under recovery, it expended whopping N843.121 billion on under recovery between January 2018 and January 2019.
“Very worrisome of the expenses made on subsidy/under recovery by NNPCL during the period under review, particularly from January 2021 to June 2023, was N9.3 trillion claimed to have been spent.
“The money as shown by available records, show that in 2021, N1.42 trillion was expended; in 2022, N4.3 trillion and in the first six months of 2023, N3.6 trillion, totaling, N9.3 trillion.”
Many of the senators who contributed to the debate on the motion, frowned at bogus expenses made on the subsidy regime by NNPCL and supported all the prayers sought for in the motion.
The Senate accordingly resolved that its standing committees on petroleum (downstream), petroleum (upstream) and finance should when constituted, carry out holistic investigation on all controversies surrounding subsidy and under recovery regime.
It also urged the NNPCL in conjunction with some major international oil companies (IOCs) in Nigeria, to form three different consortiums and build three refineries for stabilisation of the oil market and the nation’s economy generally.
Credit: DAILY INDEPENDENT
