Politics
THE House of Representatives on Wednesday summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Maikanti Baru, over the reintroduction of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).
The House described the act as an “illegality”, having been done without recourse to the National Assembly.
A motion moved by a member from Kogi State, Mr. Karimi Sunday, on the floor of the House, indicated that the NNPC spent “over N300billion” on subsidy from January 2017 to December of the same year.
Karimi informed the House that in the first three months of the year, the oil corporation had already recorded an “under recovery” of N46.86bn.
“This trend continued at an increasing rate all through 2017.
“As of December, over N300bn had been expended on petrol subsidy for 2017 alone. This trend continues till date,” the lawmaker added.
He recalled that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Kachikwu admitted in December 2017 that the Federal Government, through the NNPC, was paying N26 on each litre of petrol to suck up the difference between the landing cost of N171 and the official pump price of N145.
“This happened despite the fact that the Executive said that it had removed subsidy.
“Besides, there was no parliamentary approval for subsidy payment in the 2017 Appropriation Act”, Sunday told the House.
In the current 2018 budget lying before the National Assembly, there is also no allocation for subsidy. – Punch
– Jan. 17, 2018 @ 18:19 GMT /
Tags: Dr. Ibe Kachikwu. Kogi State Mr. Karimi Sunday Mr. Maikanti Baru Petrol: Reps summon Kachikwu GMD NNPC over “illegal” payment of N300bn subsidy Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo
