As a result of the failure of the Federal Government to pay the N200 billion subsidy money owed them, fuel Marketers in Nigeria have refused to embrace their Q3 import allocation quotas. Some weeks ago, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala stopped subsidy payments pending proper investigation of suspected corrupt practices.
Because of this, the oil marketers said, they cannot access funds from banks. This information came in a jointly written letter by the marketers’ major associations to the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Reginald Stanley.
According to the letter, “We the downstream petroleum industry companies from the private sector participating in the PSF scheme hereby acknowledge receipt of the Q3 2012 PMS allocations… The current business environment in the sector makes it necessary to bring to your attention factors that inhibit our ability to import the said volumes in Q3 2012… due to the fact that issuance of Sovereign Debt Notes covering balance 2011 and current 2012 PMS import transactions were initially severely delayed and now currently suspended, we have huge outstanding, verified and unpaid subsidy claims in excess of N200 billion from the Federal Government.
In other words, the marketers have vowed not to import petroleum products until certain conditions are met by the Federal Government.
