Showing posts with label subsidy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label subsidy. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Nigeria fuel subsidy report 'reveals $6bn fraud'


Nigeria's parliament has discussed a report said to reveal that $6bn (£4bn) has been defrauded from the fuel subsidy fund in the past two years.
The debate, which was televised live, made official findings that have been widely leaked in recent days.
The fuel sector probe was set up in the wake of angry nationwide protests in January after the government tried to remove a fuel subsidy.
Nigeria is a major oil producer but has to import most of its fuel.
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"We are fighting against entrenched interests whose infectious greed has decimated our people," House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said as he opened the two-day debate.
"Therefore, be mindful they will fight back and they normally do fight dirty."
The 205-page parliamentary report uncovers a long list of alleged wrongdoings involving oil retailers, Nigeria's Oil Management Company and the state Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.
According to the leaks, a total of 15 fuel importers collected more than $300m two years ago without importing any fuel, while more than 100 oil marketers collected the same amount of money on several occasions.
The leaked report also says that officials in the government of President Goodluck Jonathan were among those who benefited from the subsidy fund.
Many of the people named in the document have denied any involvement in fraud, with some taking out full-page adverts proclaiming their innocence in local newspapers.
The BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi in Abuja says at least some of the findings are likely to be adopted by Nigeria's lawmakers because of the huge public anger over the attempt to withdraw the subsidy.
Many Nigerians were livid when they were told by their government that the fuel subsidy was economically unsustainable - only to now find out the scale of fraud in the operation of the fund, our correspondent says.
Despite being a major oil producer, Nigeria has not invested in the infrastructure needed to produce refined fuel, so has to import much of its petrol.
The annual $8bn subsidy means prices are lower than in neighbouring countries - and correspondents say many Nigerians see cheap fuel as the only benefit they get from their country's oil wealth, much of which is pocketed by corrupt officials.
After a week of street protests and a general strike, the government agreed to restore some of the subsidy - and reduce the pump price of petrol to 97 naira (about $0.60) per litre after it had doubled to 140 naira when the subsidy was removed without warning on 1 January.
But President Jonathan defended the subsidy cut, saying Nigeria must either "deregulate and survive economically, or we continue with a subsidy regime that will continue to undermine our economy."

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Nigeria: Subsidy regime fraught with corruption and inefficiency


Following the removal of subsidy on PMS on January 1, 2012 by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the attendant spontaneous social and political upheavals that greeted the policy, the House of Representatives in an emergency session on January 8, 2012 set up an Ad-hoc Committee to verify and determine the actual subsidy requirements and monitor the implementation of the subsidy regime in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had informed the nation of its inability to continue to pump endless amount of money into the seemingly bottomless pit that was referred to as petroleum products subsidy. It explained that the annual subsidy payment was huge, endless and unsustainable. Nigerians were led to believe that the colossal payments made were solely on PMS and HHK actually consumed by Nigerians. Government ascribed the quoted figures to upsurge in international crude price, high exchange rate, smuggling, increase in population and vehicles, etc.
However, a large section of the population faulted the premise of the Government subsidy figures, maintaining that unbridled corruption and an inefficient and wasteful process accounted for a large part of the payments. To avert a clear and present danger of descent into lawlessness, the leadership of the House of Representatives took the bold and decisive action of convening the first ever Emergency Session on a Sunday (January 8, 2012), and set up the Ad-hoc Committee to verify the actual subsidy requirements of the country.
The Committee decided that the scope of this investigation should be for three years 2009 -2011 for the following reasons:
• The actual budget expendfture on subsidy for both PMS and HHK was tolerable, being N261.1 b in 2006, N278.8b in 2007 and N346.7b in 2008. 5 companies including NNPC were involved iQ 2006, 10 in 2007 and 19 in 2008 contrasted to 140 in 2011.
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