The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has declared that it will sanction fuel station operators that are caught dispensing fuel with adjusted petroleum pumps.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that this information was disclosed by the Executive of NMDPRA, Mr Farouk Ahmed, during an interactive session with commissioners of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on Friday in Abuja.
According to Ahmed defaulting petrol stations caught dispensing fuel with adjusted fuel pumps would face serious sanctions, including revocation of operating licenses, suspension from operation or shut down depending on the gravity of the offence.
He said the menace of adjustment of petroleum pumps by fuel station operators is a great concern to the oil regulatory bodies and the Federal Government.
Ahmed further revealed that the NMDPRA has been sending some of its staff to filling stations across the country to carry out on-the-spot checks in filling stations to determine if their fuel pumps have been tampered with or not.
- In his words, “What we are doing now is that we have some of our staff going round to take on-the-spot checks of some of the petrol stations.
- “If you drive into a station, drive out, you will not know if you have been cheated until you do a measurement.
“Sometimes we do a physical measurement where we go to some stations and buy one litre, look at that environment to see whether that one litre is really one litre. Then we will know whether or not they have tampered with the pump.”
NMDPRA’s collaboration with RMAFC in revenue generation
Furthermore, the NMDPRA boss mentioned that the authority would continue to collaborate with the RMAFC to generate more revenue for the federation. His words:
- “We have started the engagement but this is just a formal collaboration on areas where we can improve the revenue generation for the federation.
- “There are two areas we have to look at which are either to generate revenue or cut costs.”
In his remarks, the RMAFC Chairman, Mr Bello Shehu, highlighted that the engagement between both organisations was to strengthen their partnership in revenue generation and monitoring the activities of fuel station operators.
- In his words, “We are here in order for them to enlighten us on what they do and what we can do as a commission to assist them to better boost revenue generation for Nigeria.
- “We are interested in what the authority does to enable us to monitor better and know the right questions to ask which will enable us to give appropriate information.”
Call for citizens’ investment in the midstream sector
Mr Ahmed urged Nigerian citizens to invest in the midstream sector of the economy.
According to the NMDPRA boss, Nigerians seeking to invest in the midstream sector can rely on the agency for relevant guidelines and policies.
In addition, he mentioned that NMDPRA can point citizens in areas to invest as well as help them determine the cost of investment.
