The past few weeks have seen Nigerians purchasing petrol at new prices of between N488 and N557 per litre. This has sent citizens into financial crisis. Certainly, the days of cheap petrol are over and citizens already enmeshed in personal financial struggles now have the added burden of paying exceedingly more for petrol. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the 2023 Appropriation Act provides for petrol subsidy up until June 30, 2023, the end of petrol subsidy seems to have come a month early. The Federal Government is yet to communicate clear plans on how to ameliorate the biting effect of the subsidy removal, which has occasioned an increase in transportation fares, as well as goods and services. In the States, some governors have announced measures such as increase in minimum wage and hybrid working arrangements for civil servants, in a bid to alleviate the hardship this situation has brought upon their citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The petrol subsidy\nremoval has once again, brought the long-standing conversations of the\nopaqueness and sharp practices that characterise the subsidy regime, into\nlimelight. This was the basis for which some quarters in the country called for\nsubsidy removal before this time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A damning report by\nthe House of Representatives ad hoc Committee on the Volume of Fuel Consumed\nDaily in the Country raised serious questions about the petrol subsidy regime.\nA comparison of the records of the quantity of crude oil lifted under Nigeria\u2019s\nDirect Sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) programme, as well as petrol imported and\nused in the country between 2016 and 2021 as provided by the Nigerian National\nPetroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory\nCommission (NUPRC), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory\nAuthority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian Navy and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)\nshow significant disparity, with no two of these agencies recording the same\nquantity of crude lifted or petrol imported and consumed. The disparity in\nfigures is important because the quantity of petrol claimed to have been\nsupplied forms the basis of subsidy payment. Certainly, amounts recorded in\nexcess of actual use means that the difference would have been creamed off into\nprivate pockets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a total of 974.5\nmillion barrels of crude oil was designated as the domestic quota for the\nperiod under review, the Nigerian Navy recorded that 989.5 million barrels of\ncrude (above the designated domestic quota) was lifted, while the NMDPRA\nrecorded the lifting of 732.3 million barrels of crude oil (being the lowest\nfigure recorded). This disparity is also seen in the records of the volume of\npetrol imported into the country between 2016 and 2021, with the Nigerian Navy\nrecording the highest quantity of over 207 billion litres for the period (being\nthe highest), and the Customs Service recording over 59 billion litres (being\nthe lowest). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report also\nreveals that there is no clear average quantity of petrol consumed by Nigerians\non a daily basis from the records of various stakeholders in the sector between\n2017 and 2022. According to the report, in 2022, NNPCL recorded that 91.2 million litres of petrol were consumed\ndaily, while the Nigerian Navy put its figure at 88.3 million litres. The\nNMDPRA recorded a daily petrol consumption of 66.7 million litres, while the\nNigeria Customs Service recorded 20.9 million litres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be recalled\nthat in September 2022, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service had\nfaulted the claim of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)\nthat Nigeria consumes 60 million litres of petrol daily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With regard to the\nstorage of petrol, the report indicates that there are 242 depots approved for\noperation in Nigeria and that 143 depots received petrol between 2017 and 2022.\nHowever, the report found that 6 depots out of this number that received petrol\nwere not listed as those approved for operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the distribution of\npetrol, the Committee found that the over 5,000 km\nnetwork of oil pipeline connecting the Federation, which is deemed to be the\ncheapest and the safest means of transporting or distributing petroleum\nproducts has been abandoned due to theft, vandalism and economic sabotage. This\nleaves tankers as the only means of distributing petroleum products across the\nFederation and some tankers and persons with jerrycans have been intercepted by\nthe Nigeria Customs Service, while trying to smuggle petrol across Nigerian\nborders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwas also found that the NMDPRA which is in charge of Midstream and Downstream\npetroleum operations has no record indicating the volume of petrol discharged\nto petrol retail outlets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The investigation and\nfindings of the Committee were regarded as a welcome development by Nigerians,\nas they support the allegations of underhanded dealings in the petroleum\nsector. However, observers are of the opinion that the report came too close to\nthe end of former President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s administration and the tenure of\nthe 9th<\/sup> Assembly, making it difficult for the situation to be\naddressed. As President Bola Tinubu has taken the mantle of Nigeria\u2019s\nleadership, with petrol subsidy removed within 48 hours of his inauguration,\nNigerians are waiting to see what reforms his administration will bring to the\npetroleum sector. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The past few weeks have seen Nigerians purchasing petrol at new prices of between N488 and N557 per litre. This has sent citizens into financial crisis. Certainly, the days of cheap petrol are over and citizens already enmeshed in personal financial struggles now have the added burden of paying exceedingly more for petrol. Although the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3280,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3268\/revisions\/3280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}