Senate panel raises extra budget to N521bn

The Senate yesterday mandated the Federal Ministries of Petroleum Resources; Budget and National Planning; and Finance to include an additional N108 billion in the proposed N465.3 billion supplementary budget submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari a fortnight ago.

The N108 billion would be used to settle subsidy claims for October to December, 2015. This is besides the N413 billion sent to the Upper House to pay marketers.

The Senate Committee on Appropriation  gave the order in Abuja yesterday. Members of the committee said the subsidy claims were due for payment to major oil marketers between October and this month which was not included in the N413 billion  subsidy claims covering January to September 2015.

The committee also ordered the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to provide details of the N437 billion which had so far been paid to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as its subsidy claims, but which was not appropriated by the National Assembly.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Danjuma Goje, noted at a meeting with the ministers that there was a report indicating that  the petroleum ministry was seeking approval for N413 billion out of the total N950 billion accrued subsidy.

Goje said while the ministry had paid the subsidy due to NNPC  as First Line Charge being its own share of the 48 per cent of the fuel it imported, the subsidy due to oil marketers, were withheld.

He said the inclusion of the N108 billion would enable the Senate to approve the money so that oil marketers would not hold Nigerians to ransom as the yultide approaches. The fuel scarcity is yet to abate even after three weeks.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Jamila Soara, told the committee that she was representing the Minister,  Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who was in Lagos, to meet with major oil marketers.

She said her ministry’s proposal was for N413 billion, being a component of N120.552 billion as outstanding for 2014 and N292.8 billion for subsidy from January to September 2015.

She said: “We just called the attention of the Budget Office to the fact that the  proposal for the last quarter had not really been captured because it was about N108 billion. When we started discussion on it. It was much earlier in the year,  hence, the tidying up was not completed.”

Similarly, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, noted that there was no clear synergy between the Ministry of Budget and the Petroleum Resources Ministry.