Oil Subsidy: Reps Summon Finance Minister, Give One-Week Ultimatum
The House of Representatives has given one week to the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to present details of all contract agreements between NNPC and oil companies involved in the petroleum subsidy regime of the federal government.
The minister is to also provide record of subsidy payments from the consolidated revenue account since January 2013, as well as all correspondences between the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding subsidy payments from January 2013 to date as well as all other details.
This followed the ruling of the Special Ad hoc Committee On Petroleum Products Subsidy Regime In Nigeria From 2017-2021 after the appearance of the representatives of Sahara Energy and the minister of finance during it’s sitting on Tuesday.
It could be recalled that the mandate of the committee was extended recently to cover the year 2022, to include the new Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme agreement between NNPC and oil companies.
The committee had also directed the management of Sahara Energy Resources to provide the details of all their DSDP and subsidy agreements, as well as information status of the company and its subsidiaries.
Following the adoption of a motion moved by Mark Gbillah, the committee chairman, Ibrahim Mustapha Aliyu, ruled that the company must provide all the needed details.
Earlier, the Director of Home Finance, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Steve Okon, said he appeared before the committee not to make submission but to ask for more time to put all the required documents together as requested by the committee.
He said: “The ministry holds the House in very high esteem, however, I was not sent here to make any presentation or submission but to ask for an extension of time to enable us to put all documents needed to make our presentation and submission.”
His request for a two weeks’ extension was, however, rejected by the committee. The chairman of the ad hoc committee, ruled that, the ministry was given one week to provide the documents and make its presentations.
He said, the recent statement by the minister that the country will require N6.7 trillion to service subsidy is worrisome and requires explanations on the scheme, including the DSDP arrangement between NNPC and oil companies.
Sahara Energy Resources was also given one week to explain the discrepancies observed in the documents it submitted to the committee as regards the entities that make up the group and their legal status, as well as the letter signed on behalf of Sahara Energy by an Executive of Sahara Trade, an affiliate of the company.
Representative of the company, Mrs Uroma Benson-Okoh, promised to present all the required documents to the committee on the appointed date. Continue reading
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