Nigeria’s Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been accused by the House of Reps Committee on Finance, of doctoring revenue documents.
This was revealed by Rep James Faleke, Chairman of the Committee, on Wednesday, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria, during the public hearing on the 2022-2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
The report stated that the Committee walked the agency out for failing to give appropriate figures on its daily output of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and other petroleum products in the country, citing recorded discrepancies presented by the PPPRA.
What the Committee said
Rep. James Faleke observed that daily consumption of PMS was put at 48 million litres within the period under review, while Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) was put at 10.5 million litres per day, though in another document, PPPRA claimed that it discharged 59.90 million litres daily in Jan 2019, 55.04 million in February and 55.66 million litres in March.
“The documents further indicated that the supply jumped to 60.27 million litres in Jan 2020, then 60.56 million litres in Feb and down to 56.07 million litres in March 2020,” he said, adding that 2021’s supply jumped to 61.92 litres per day in January and down to 58.09 million litres in February, before moving up to 66.64 million litres in March 2021.
“The records presented have contradictions that cannot be ignored. Tell us that the documents are not correct so that we can move forward,” he said.
The Committee ordered the agency to reappear on August 26 to explain the discrepancies noticed in the agency’s documents, stating that documents submitted for daily output of PMS for 2018 and 2019 were the same. They also ordered the Financial Reporting Council, the Accountant General Office, as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to scrutinise the records and reappear before the Committee on August 26.
“The data you gave us before says 52 million per day, that means it is wrong, so your Naira figure too will be wrong,” Faleke said.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported recently that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) informed Nigerians that the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act would not automatically increase fuel prices in the country.
Executive Secretary, Mr Abdulkadir Saidu, said, “There is no gainsaying that the PIA signals the implementation of full deregulation of the downstream sector.
“However, it remains worthy of note that the PIA does not automatically translate to any immediate increase in the price of PMS.
“The current price will remain until a negotiation with organised labour, which will develop a feasible framework that minimises the impact of a Market-Based pricing policy on the masses, is concluded.”
