Senate committee urges PPMC to make Nigerians benefit from kerosene subsidy

The Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance has directed the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) to ensure that kerosene is no longer diverted to construction companies.
The committee gave the directive at its public hearing in Abuja on Wednesday.
According  to the Senate, PPMC must look for alternative ways for construction and manufacturing companies and the aviation industry to acquire kerosene.

The Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance has directed the Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) to ensure that kerosene is no longer diverted to construction companies.
The committee gave the directive at its public hearing in Abuja on Wednesday.
According  to the Senate, PPMC must look for alternative ways for construction and manufacturing companies and the aviation industry to acquire kerosene.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Magnus Abe (PDP-Rivers), said that the incessant hijacking of kerosene by companies had caused the ordinary  Nigerian untold hardship.
“As long as these big companies do not have an alternative means of getting kerosene, they will end up hijacking the household kerosene.
“So, you must throw the importation of kerosene open for them to import their kerosene and leave the household kerosene for the women in the village,'' Abe said.
 Earlier, the Managing Director of PPMC, Mr Haruna Momoh, told the committee that there had been various sharp practices in the kerosene market.
Momoh said this was why the company adopted the kero-direct initiative to ensure that kerosene got to ordinary Nigerians in the rural areas.
Meanwhile, the committee  has queried discrepancies between figures of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA)  and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in the quantity of fuel imported from 2006 to 2011.
It  said the  PPPRA figures did not tally with those presented by Nigerian Ports Authority.
The PPPRA figures showed that while in 2006, 7.056 million tonnes of fuel were imported into the country, in 2007, the quantity was 7.181 million tonnes.
The figures also showed that in 2008, 9.125 million tonnes were imported, in 2009, 10.019 million tonnes, in 2010, 12.767 million tonnes and in 2011, 16.306 million tonnes were imported.
The Nigerian Ports Authority records, however, showed that in 2006, 11.456 million tonnes were imported, in 2007, 13.503 million tonnes, and in 2008, 14.463 million tonnes.
The NPA figures also showed that in 2009, 17.365 million tonnes were imported, in 2010, 18.048 million tonnes were imported and in 2011, 21.527 million tonnes were imported.
The Managing Director of NPA, Malam Omar Suleiman, however, said that their figures also included the quantity of kerosene imported and not only petrol.  
The committee asked the Managing Director of  PPPRA, Mr Reginald  Stanley, to furnish it with records of subsidy payments from 2006 to 2011, the actual figure of fuel imports and the final subsidy payment for 2011.
The committee has subpoenaed the managing partner of KPMG to appear before it at its resumed sitting on Thursday.
In the letter of subpoena signed by the chairman, the committee said failure of KPMG to appear before it on Thursday would lead to the committee taking necessary measures.