Finance Ministry, NNPC Suspend Subsidies Recovery

The Ministry of Finance and the NNPC last Wednesday in Abuja agreed to stay action on further recovery of the backlog of subsidies from the Federation Account.

This was the outcome of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting as contained in a statement issued by Dr Yerima Ngama, Minister of State for Finance.

“ After due consultations, the Minister of State for Finance and the NNPC on Wednesday agreed to stay action on further recovery of backlog of subsidies due it from the Federation Account,’’ the statement said.

The minister expressed optimism that the decision would help resolve the issue that stalled the last FAAC meeting in Abuja.

It would be  recalled that the FAAC on Tuesday failed to make the monthly revenue allocation to the three tiers of government for the month of September.

This followed disagreements over fuel subsidy deductions by the NNPC and the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

A report by the sub-committee set up to look into NNPC’s indebtedness to the Federation Account had expressed concern about the disregard by NNPC and PPPRA for subsidy deduction limits as stipulated by law.

Ngama, however, told journalists at the end of the extra-ordinary meeting between the NNPC and commissioners for finance on Tuesday that he was determined to resolve the issue of NNPC debt once and for all. “We had scheduled to have the FAAC meeting today(Tuesday) but decided to hold this meeting with NNPC because we have lingering issues between the NNPC and commissioners for finance from the various states.

“This is an issue that has been going on for close to two years now and we believe we must resolve it because it is not good to be having these issues reappearing at every FAAC meeting,” he said.