Following ongoing investigations into the management of fuel subsidy, the Federal Government has now removed 98 companies from the list of importers of the product into the country.
A total of 140 companies were discovered by the House of Representatives to have imported petrol in 2011, for which more than N1.7tn had been paid as subsidy claims.
The Federal Government’s action implies that only 42 companies will benefit from the N656bn provided in the 2012 budget for subsidy payment.
The spokesman of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Dr. Wole Adamolekun, confirmed the removal of the fuel importers from the 2012 operations in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja.
He, however, said PPPRA had only 125 fuel importers on its list before the government’s action.
The House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee on the Subsidy Regime led by Mr. Farouk Lawan, had discovered that 49 companies imported fuel in the first quarter of 2011, but the number dramatically increased to 140 at the end of the year.
“As far back as December 2011, we had on our own reduced the number of importers from 125 to 42,” Adamolekun, however, explained.
He said the new PPPRA management led by the Executive Secretary, Mr. Reginald Stanley, did so without any prompting from outside.
Despite the reduction of the number of importers, Adamolekun said the only way to sanitise the oil industry was through the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill into law by the National Assembly.
He decried the fact that many oil firms in the upstream sub-sector had refineries in other parts of the world, but had not considered it necessary to establish any in Nigeria.
The PPPRA, however, could neither oblige THE PUNCH’s request for the names of the 42 companies, nor disclose the criteria used to trim the number of importers.
However, it insisted that ownership of retail outlets and storage facilities were conditions that must be met before an importer could be granted a licence.
But the House of Representatives’ panel discovered that many firms did not meet this requirement.
Stanley had said during the demonstration that followed the withdrawal of subsidy by the Federal Government, “There will be a final appraisal of quarter four on the March 31, 2012 and companies that did not perform up to expectation will not only be sanctioned, but will be dropped in subsequent quarters.”
-PunchNG
i hope they would fine a way to fix refineries in nigeria and stop importing fuel this is crazy a whole nigeria what a hell?
This is crazy indeed. Why is FG playing hide and seek game for Nigerian? When will this madness stop? What is the hell. Get our refineries to work.
They re still selling fuel for 150 in ughelli delta state. Pls we need help o.
Mr Presido GEJ, Importation of fuel into NIGERIA is TOTAL MADNESS. Just restrict any importation only to retailers who have at least 100 stations nationwide – 8-10 cabals for 2012.. During the 1967-70 NIGERIA/BIAFRAN family war OJUKWU never imported any fuel to carry on. He/His engineers used cooking POTS to produce all grades of fuel from IMO RIVER, ELELENWA, AGBADA, UMUECHEM etc flowstations and also generated electricity from the flow station flared gasline in the most safe efficient way.. Refining technology is old/300-1000yrs. Just heat up the crude in a closed safe container to 600-800 deg C depending on crude grade and separate the distillates by cooling to PETROL/40-150deg C, KEROSENE/150-250deg C,, DIESEL/250-450 deg C, LOW/HIGH POUR OIL/450-650 deg C. Since BOKON HARAM is using improvised explosives to harrass your govt why not get them and ex Biafrans to work together to use improvised refinery to produce fuel/generate electricity to power the Nation.Just keep the BANKS/IMF/POLITICIANS/JUDICIARY/UNIONS out of this scheme.
we explore 454,000 BPD , IGALLON=3.785LITRES & 42GALLONS=1BARREL.simple mathematics .454000 x 42=19068000gallons then convert d gallons to litres 19068000×3.785=72,172,380.litres,assume refinery is working at capacity of of 40%.72,172,380×40%=28868952litresx41%(distillate of pms from crude) =
28,868,952.4litres per day . govt said we consume 35million litres per day
d diff is not much so why d crazy import of fuel i can still beleive there are sharp practices check it.
It’s obvious dat FG have succeeded creating hardship to the helpless citizens in this country. Imagine the nonsense! I have always known it. A none performing person is always a none performing person even if u give him eternity as time. A corrupt person can never fight corruption at all. Where is the so called fuel subsidy removal? Where is the it’s palliative measures? Criminals who call themselves govt officials.
If we have used our power of change (our votes) wrongly in the past,why couldn’t we stand our ground when this fuel sub was to be removed? Most polls conducted revealed a fair section of the populace approved the removal of the . . . It is evident that the rot in the oil sector(blamed on the huge fuel sub) is a result of corruption. That the Economy will collapse if the fuel sub wasn’t discontinued is a farce & a slap on our collective intelligence. We must not keep quiet or else we are . . .
This is a giant step towards the remedy to the menace of Fuel hike in Nigeria, I suppose the national assembly should sign into law the necessity of establishing of more quality refineries in country. Doing this would not only stop the problems we are facing in the oil sector but would go a long way to creating job opportunities for the many Nigerian young graduates, who are very much qualified but couldn’t practice their skills.