The Federal Government has agreed to pay the controversial N160 billion subsidy claim by oil marketers in the country. The issue of the outstanding payment has for months hampered normal supply of petroleum products across the country.
The decision of the FG to pay the claimed sum is said to have been triggered by the recommendation by the special investigation team on subsidy claims that the government should pay the oil marketers. This, according to reports, have encouraged bankers to reopen credit lines to the sector. Marketers have thus resumed importation, albeit cautiously.
The former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had doubted the additional N160 billion claims ascribed to exchange rate differential and interest rate charges on banks’ funding for the petroleum products imports following the offsetting of an earlier claim of N131 billion by the oil marketers.
She had subsequently set up a special investigative team made of representatives of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Committee (PPPRC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the finance ministry to investigate the claims before she can approve the payment. However, the team could not complete the assignment before the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration left office last month.
This is the right move no? Regardless of what the president thinks of the subsidy or the conduct of the marketers, the government should stand by its end of all legal contracts.