The federal government and oil marketers are in a fresh row over payment of subsidy claims for imported petroleum products.


Government said it has paid additional N34.6 billion subsidy claims to some oil marketers as at August 22.


But a source at the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) told our reporters that members of the association have run out of stuck making fuel scarcity imminenet.

The source said MOMAN’s situation is worsened by the fact that it had stopped importing the product because the federal government has not paid his members their subsidy claims under the Petroleum Support Fund (PEF).

Government on its part said it has paid twenty-four companies to settle forty-three claims made for 2012, figures provided by Paul Nwabuikwu, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. With this, the total subsidy claims for 2012 paid so far is N78.9 billion, a statement from Nwabuikwu said. He said this was in line with the commitment of the Federal Ministry of Finance to continue the payment of marketers whose papers have been processed and cleared.

Some claims made by marketers for 2011 and carried over to 2012 have also been paid bringing the total payments to N259.3 billion for both 2011 and 2012 subsidy claims.

The total number of companies that benefitted from the 2011-2012 payment is one hundred and twenty-one.

The Fuel marketers said they have run out of supply of petroleum products. A development that may plunge the nation into another round of fuel scarcity witnessed in the past.

But the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said yesterday that there is no cause for alarm over the fuel reserve in the country.

The acting spokesperson of the NNPC Dr. Omar Farouq said in an interview with Daily Trust that the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has as at last Thursday 32 days sufficiency which excludes the vessels that discharged over the weekends.

However, a credible source close to MOMAN told Daily Trust that his six-members have very short supply of fuel. “Our members have very little supply of fuel as at yesterday (Monday) and this will soon be exhausted”.

source: http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/news/175972-fg-marketers-in-fresh-spat-over-subsidy-claims