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Reps Probe N600bn Kerosene Subsidy.

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written by Kufre Ekarika
Worried by the sharp practices involved in Kerosene subsidy, the House of Representatives yesterday directed its committee on petroleum (downstream) to investigate allegations that N634billion was spent from 2010 to 2013 by President Goodluck Jonathan’s Government to subsidize kerosene in the country without organic results. The decision arose from a motion moved by Rep. Adeyinka Ajayi(APC-Osun) who argued that the petroleum product was not effectively distributed to end users.
“While the product was sold by government to marketers at less than N50, it was in turn sold by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) at N50 per litre, while independent marketers were retailing the product at over N130 per litre to Nigerians, most of whom were very low income earners in the localities of the country.”
He said.Adding the Rep Ajayi claimed “kerosene which is supposedly sold to marketers at N40.90, hardly gets to the consumers at the regulated price as it is only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) retail outlets that sell the product at N50 per litre while major and independent marketers retail the product at between N130-N135 per litre”.He said he was “aware that recently, the Chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) stated that the country had spent over 634billion Naira on subsidizing kerosene in the last 3 years, I.e. 2010,2011 and 2012 at the sums of N110billion, N320billion and N200billion respectively for those years”.
He recalled that: “The Hon. Minister of Finance recently appeared before the Senate Committee on Appropriations where she reportedly denied paying any subsidy on kerosene in the last two years”. He said “there were conflicting claims by the Hon. Minister and the NNPC on the source of money through which kerosene is subsidized and the amount involved therein as the Office of the Hon. Minister was said neither to have been aware of nor had it authorised any such payment”.
“The alleged racketeering going on at the NNPC where allegations are rife that kerosene is purchased from the depot by dealers at between N65 to N75 per litre which in turn makes it commercially impossible to resell to Nigerians at the recommended retail price of 50 naira”, he stated. Adeyinka said he is “convinced that an investigation into these issues will promote transparency and accountability and may result in a process which will ensure that the product which is supplied for consumption locally by the NNPC is delivered to the masses of Nigeria at the stipulated price, thereby reducing the use of non-Eco friendly alternative sources of energy such as firewood, sawdust and charcoal”.
In his contribution, Hon. Sani Kaita(APC-Katsina) argued that government was playing double standards in its self-confessed efforts to elevate the poor and arrest deforestation in the North, by not making kerosene available to a majority of the poor in the country. Hon. Nnanna Raphael Igbokwe(PDP-Imo) who supported the motion, however said he was not aware that government spent a kobo subsidizing the product in the years under scrutiny.
According to him, government can only claim to represent the masses if items that touch them directly were subsidized and made accessible to them. The plenary session which was presided over by Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, referred the motion to the House Committee on Petroleum Resources(Upstream) for investigation.
Kufre Ekarika
- See more at: http://360naija.com/2013/11/27/reps-probe-n600bn-kerosene-subsidy/#.UpZGcNJzClQ

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