The Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngoni Okonjo- Iweala, and members of the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation engaged in hot arguments yesterday over whether the Federal Government is currently paying subsidy on the importation of kerosene and the amount spent for the purpose. While the minister insisted that what the Ministry of Finance currently pays for is subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS), the senators claimed that the Federal Government spent money on subsidising kerosene and wanted to know the exact amount.
This was at the public hearing by the lawmakers to ascertain the extent of the performance of the 2013 budget. Recently, Hon. Peterside Dakuku revealed that the Federal Government spent N634 billion on subsidy payment for kerosene between 2010 and 2012. The senate decision followed the disclosure by the minister that the Federal Government had, as at the end of the third quarter of this year, spent $9 billion out of the $14.06 excess crude fund for the payment of subsidy on fuel importation.
A member of the committee, Senator Bukola Saraki, asked the minister whether the payment included those of kerosene subsidy. But the minister after several prodding by Saraki kept insisting that the payment she authorized was for the payment of subsidy on PMS.
The minister said it was only the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that could answer whether or not subsidy was being paid on kerosene importation. Group General Manager of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, claimed that put paid to the issue when he said there was no subsidy on kerosene. This was also as the lawmakers were embroiled in arguments over the shortfall in the excess crude oil account.
The argument was over the difference between the $14. 06 billion that the minister said accrued to the fund and the $9 billion the minister disclosed was spent from it for the payment of petroleum subsidy. The senators raised questions and challenged the minister when she revealed that the sum of $4.34 billion was currently outstanding from the fund after the outflows from the account.
Senator Eta Inang told the minister that from the inflow and out flow statistics provided by her, there was no way what is outstanding from the funds would be $4.34 billion. After much argument, the minister promised to furnish the lawmakers with more figures later to substantiate her position. All these happened on a day the Nigerian Customs Service cried foul over the huge loss of resources to the government waivers on imports.
The representative of the Comptroller General of Customs told members of the senate committee that the Service was losing huge revenue and not being able to meet its revenue target because of the waivers being enjoyed by some importers. In particular, the Customs disclosed that it is currently experiencing difficulties meeting the N718 billion estimated revenue target set for it in the 2013 budget.
According to the Customs, of the targeted revenue, it is only able to generate the sum of N530 billion so far. It said the sum of N188 billion is being lost to waivers, out of which it lost N105 billion to waivers on rice alone.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, assured that the Senate would look into the complaints of the Customs in the 2014 budget, particularly regarding the issue of poor finding.
