The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has denied claims by the ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives on Subsidy Regime alleging that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, received N1.329 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN as subsidy payments between 2009-2011.
He made the assertion on Tuesday, March 17,2015 during a press brief with some journalists in Abuja.
The committee in a report said, “NNPC directly deducted N408.255 billion, in addition to the payment of N81.648 billion by CBN, in 2009; N407.801 billion, in addition to the payment of N402.423 billion by CBN, in 2010; and N847.942 billion, in addition to the payment of N844.944 billion by CBN, for 2011, contrary to Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.”
Alison-Madueke described such claims as “totally baseless, false and without foundation,” adding that subsidy payments to NNPC are not based on cash remittance.
She said, “The mechanics of subsidy recovery by NNPC is non-fund based, but by way of credit to NNPC against domestic crude cost due. When approval certificates are received from Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, their values are deducted from crude oil cost due in a given month after due consideration of what is approved.”“All such approvals and deductions are regularly copied to other relevant agencies of government such as Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Budget Office of the Federation, Federation Accounts Allocation Committee and Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission.
“In the advice on subsidy deductions forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, NNPC always state that ‘in line with presidential directives, the ministry should authorize the Accountant General of the Federation to source for the approved subsidy amount and transfer same to the Federation Account for onward distribution by FAAC.”
Meanwhile, Alison-Madueke lamented that the ad-hoc committee were misleading people through their claims.
“I is grossly inaccurate and misleading for the ad-hoc committee to claim that NNPC made ‘double deduction’ by deducting subsidy at source and simultaneously receiving payment for the same purpose from CBN,” she said.
Alison-Madueke added, “The conclusion by the committee of double payments to NNPC obviously accounts for the erroneous and outrageous sum of N2,587.087 trillion as total subsidy payment for 2011 as stated in the committee’s report.”
She said: “It is unfortunate that the wild allegations, suppositions and conjectures, which form the basis of their conclusion, actually did more damage to the objectives than verify subsidy requirement.“Furthermore, such reckless allegation is capable of inciting the public against the corporation and its personnel.”
According to Punch, the minister then demanded full disclosure on this allegation to set the records straight.
Alison-Madueke said, “In this context, the committee should disclose the source of their data and such source must disclose to the nation the demand note for the payment, the bank and account to which the amount was paid and the purpose for which the money was expended and by who.
“If this is not done, the story of subsidy in Nigeria would never be closed.”
