Senate C’ttee Queries Fuel Import Figures

The Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance has queried discrepancies between figures of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) in the quantity of fuel imported from 2006 to 20011.

The PPPRA figures, the committee said, did not tally with those presented by the Nigerian Ports Authority.

PPPRA figures showed that while in 2006,7,056 million tonnes of fuel were imported into the country, in 2007+, the quantity was 7.181 million tonnes.

The figures also showed that in 2008,9.125 million tonnes were imported, in 2009,10.019 million tonnes, in 2010, 12.767 million tonnes and in 2011,16,306 million tonnes were imported.

While the Nigerian Ports Authority records showed that in 2006,11.456 million tonnes were imported, 13.503 million tonues in 2010 and in 2008,14.463 million tonnes. The NPA figures also showed that in 2009,17.365 million tonues were imported, in 2010, 18.048 billion tonnes were imported and in 2011, 21.527 million tonnes were imported.

The Managing Director of NPA, Malam Omar Suleiman, however, said that their figures also included the quantity of kerosene imported and not only petrol.

The committee, therefore, asked the Managing Director of PPPRA, Mr. Reginald Stanley to furnish it with records of subsidy payments from 2006 to 2011, the actual figure of fuel imports and the final subsidy payment for 2011.

The Senate Committee subpoenaed the managing partner of KPMG to appear before it at its resumed sitting on  Thursday. In the letter of subpoena signed by the chairman, the committee said failure to appear before it on that day, necessary measures would be taken against KPMG.

Meanwhile, the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance has directed the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) to ensure that kerosene is no longer diverted to construction companies.

Handing down the directive at its public hearing, the Senate said PPMC must look for alternative ways for constructionand mannfacturing companies and the aviation industry to acquire kerosene.

The committee chairman, Senator Magnus Abe noted that the incessant hijacking of kerosene by companies had caused the ordinary Nigerian untold hardship, saying: “As long as these big companies do not have on alternative means of getting kerosene, they will end up hijacking the household kerosene”.

Earier, the Managing Director of PPMC, Mr Haruna Momoh had told the committee that there had been various sharp practices in the kerosene market, and also said that was why the company adopted the kero-direct initiative to ensure that kerosene got to ordinary Nigerians in the rural areas.

Shedie Okpara