FG earmarks N108bn to clear 2015 subsidy payments

The Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Farouk Ahmed, has said that the Federal Government has set aside an extra N108 billion to defray subsidy payments to oil marketers for the year 2015.

He disclosed this in Abuja while announcing the new pump price of petrol, explaining that the money was meant to clear payment for the month of October, November and December, 2015.

FG had recently paid an outstanding N407 billion subsidy claims to oil marketers up to September, 2015, which the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said included arrears from the 2014 financial year, as well as payments for 2015.

In the meantime, the PPPRA boss said that his agency had completed the verification of marketer’s documents for the months of October and November, which would be sent to the Debt Management Office (DMO) before it is handled by the Ministry of Finance.

He said that, “For October, November and December, PPPRA has been verifying subsidy claims. The verification only commences when the marketers bring in their documentation. We have been able to verify October and November and we are going to send everything to the DMO for payment.

“Already there has been a budget for that because we have appropriated about N108 billion for these three months. It has come down because of the drop in the price.”

He further maintained that marketers would not have problems with payment of subsidy arrears for 2015, because the Federal Government was up to date with the payment.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, has disclosed that with effect from January, the company would begin real time tracking of products distribution with a view to checking diversion and artificially induced scarcity.

She maintained that the agency has been involved in manual tracking of every truck leaving any of its depots be it in Lagos, Warri, Oghara, Port Harcourt or Calabar, but now want to begin real time tracking where defaulters would be brought to book.