FG, marketers disagree on outstanding subsidy debt

The resolution of the current scarcity of petrol across the country will feature prominently at a meeting scheduled to hold today (Monday) between the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and petroleum product marketers.

The meeting, which holds in Abuja, will attempt to resolve the controversy surrounding the outstanding actual subsidy arrears being owed the marketers and when it will be paid.

While the minister gave the outstanding indebtedness of the government to the marketers as N131bn, the marketers insist that they are still being owed N200bn after last week’s payment of N154bn.

The Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Thomas Olawore, told one of our correspondents on Sunday that the government had paid N154.2bn out of the N354.4bn it owed the independent and major marketers as well as the depot owners, leaving a balance of N200.2bn.

But the minister said this figure could not be correct, noting that the balance that was left based on the Petroleum Pricing Products Regulatory Agency’s template was about N131bn.

She said, “As you know, we paid N156bn recently, N100bn of the principal payment that we owe them and then we paid N56bn interest rate and some remaining exchange rate differentials. Prior to that, we had just paid N31bn exchange rate differentials. So, at the time we paid that last week, what we had outstanding was N98bn.”

“As of now, since we made the announcement last week, it has now risen from N98bn to N131bn outstanding in principal payment. And they are now making a demand of N200bn and I ask them what is the balance for?”

However, Olawore said the N200.2bn balance was based on a template agreed upon with the PPPRA and that the minister could not change it overnight without the input of all stakeholders.

He said, “The minister agreed to meet us tomorrow (Monday) to discuss how the balance of N200.2bn will be paid.

“We will explain to her that it is N200.2bn. The PPPRA is there as the middle party and will be able to establish the truth based on the agreed template.”

Olawore confirmed that the tanker owners and drivers had temporarily suspended their strike and commenced lifting of products because of the appeal that the marketers made to them following the payment of part of the debt owed them by the Federal Government.