Major marketers of petroleum products under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) have threatened to stop importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol in protest against the failure of the Federal Government to pay the arrears of subsidy claims, amounting to N350 billion.
Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Femi Olawore, who stated this on Friday in Lagos during a media briefing, raised the alarm that acute scarcity of petrol across the country was imminent within the next five days unless the N350 debt is paid.
“They owe us and they should pay. We are doing business on behalf of the Federal Government and if they didn’t ask us to sell with subsidy, all these problems won’t have emerged. At this point, majority of the banks are not helpful. All post-dated Sovereign Debt Notes (SDN) issued by the Finance Ministry were not honoured by the banks; they claim they cannot deal with post-dated financial instruments,” Olawore said.
Olawore further stated that since MOMAN and other independent importers such as Depot and Petroleum Products Marketing Association (DAPPMA)) are using their shareholders’ fund to import fuel, which resulted in the huge unpaid subsidy claims, the shareholders of the affected companies have raised concerns over the debt.
He warned that the federal government should not allow the debt to be classified as bad.
MOMAN had in a letter addressed to the Coordinating Minister for Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, stated that despite previous assurances from the government to reimburse the marketers for under recovery as verified by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the government had failed to honour the agreement.
The MOMAN scribe said the industry to date had only received approximately N30 billion in foreign exchange differential claims out of the N100 billion owed.
“In the same vein, only N345 billion had been received in core subsidy payments, covering payments up to the second quarter of 2014.
“Specifically, only three companies out of the six-member companies that makes up MOMAN received payments for forex differentials and no company, MOMAN or DAPPMA, has been paid interest charges on delayed payments,” he added.
He noted that MOMAN controls about 60 per cent of the downstream sub-sector of the oil and gas sector and stressed the need for the government to pay marketers to avoid fuel scarcity.
On claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it has enough stock of fuel will lasts for 29 days, Olawore challenged the NNPC to tell Nigerians where the petrol is stored.
“I challenge him (Ohi Alegbe, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, NNPC) to tell us where the fuel is stored and we will ask the journalists to come with us and confirm the stock level,” he said.
But the Ministry of Finance in a statement last night said MOMAN’s threat was disappointing.
“The public comments by MOMAN on the issue of payment for fuel imports are deeply disappointing because government, in spite of the well-known resource constraints, has made payments to marketers a priority. For instance, oil marketers have been paid N31b for interest differentials. They’ve also been given an IOU of N100 billion backed by Sovereign Debt Notes which will be honoured end April.
“Other payments are also being prioritised. Let’s not forget that in December, marketers were paid over N300 billion in two installments. So the false impression that government doesn’t care which they’re giving in spite of many meetings, reassurances and agreements reached with the CME and other government representatives is really unfortunate,” said the statement.
Also, competent sources within the petroleum ministry informed THISDAY yesterday night that the Minister of Petroleum has embarked on series of meetings to ensure that all outstanding issues pertaining to the subsidy claims were resolved to avoid any disruption to the smooth supply of petroleum products.
A tri-partite meeting between MOMAN, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum is scheduled for today or Sunday where issues will be addressed to facilitate payment.
Source: Thisday
