The Federal Government, under the administration of Muhammadu Buhari may have settled all outstanding claims by marketers of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) following the issuance of promissory notes to offset inherited local debts.
This comes as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said no fuel subsidy payment has been made to marketers since 2016.
Marketers, who pleaded anonymity told The Guardian that the outstanding debts were settled.
“On subsidy claims, there may be one or two smaller marketers who did not get everything they claimed for due to reconciliations or disputed claims but by and large, all marketers were settled,” one of the top marketers told The Guardian.
Buhari had stopped PMS subsidy through private marketers immediately he got to office and made NNPC L a sole importer.
While NNPC was bearing the burden and deducting the expenses before remitting to FAAC through under recovery, in 2022 the government started making budgetary allocations, following criticism that under recovery lacks transparency and can’t be monitored.
All outstanding, which was inherited from the Goodluck Jonathan administration, forced Buhari in March 2018 to approach the National Assembly, seeking its approval for the issuance of promissory notes to offset the inherited local debts.
The NASS thereafter approved the payment of N348 billion as outstanding subsidy claims to 74 petroleum marketers.
Some of the companies are Oando, Total, Honey Well, Capital Oil, Conoil, A.A. Rano, Folawiyo and Eternal oil, Aiteo, Forte Oil, Bovas, Mobil, MRS Oil and Gas among others.
The action of the then President and NASS followed the adoption of an interim report of the Committee on Petroleum Downstream on the Promissory Note Programme and a Bond Issuance to Settle Inherited Local Debts and Contractual Obligations to Petroleum Marketers.
