69 Companies Including One Belonging to a Minister to Refund N 241 Billion Subsidy Money to Government

The ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy led by Hon. Farouk Lawan has asked close to 70 beneficiaries of fuel subsidy to refund N 241.247 billion to government.

Companies expected to tender refunds include the Minister of Aviation’s Sea Petroleum and Gas ( N 1.01 billion).

Others are Acorn Plc, Alminnur Resources Ltd, AMG Petro-Energy Ltd, Anosyke Group of companies Ltd, Ascon Oil & Gas Company, Avant Garde Energy, A-Z Petroleum, CAH Resources Association Ltd, Conoil Plc, Crust Energy Ltd, Downstream Energy Source Ltd, Dozzy Oil and Gas Ltd, Duport Marine Ltd, Eco-Regen Ltd, Eurafic Oil and Coastal Services Ltd, and First Deep water Discovery Ltd.

Others include Frado International Ltd, Fresh Synergy Ltd, Heyden Petroleum, Ibafon Oil Ltd, Imad Oil & Gas Ltd, Integrated Resources Ltd, Ipman Investment Ltd, Knightsbridge, Linetrale Oil supply and Trading Company, Lingo Oil & Gas Company Ltd, Lloyds Energy Ltd, Lottoj Oil & Gas Ltd, Maizube Petroleum Ltd, Matrix Energy Oil & Gas Ltd, Menol Oil & Gas Ltd. (Please see figure 1 for amounts to be refunded)

The committee found that the companies enjoyed N 241.247 billion in subsidy payments that they did not merit and has asked the EFCC to go to town in ensuring the money is refunded to the country.

An excerpt from the report reads: “Discharges that suffered one or more of the above infractions were adjudged not sustainable and, therefore, not good enough to attract any subsidy. The disqualified claims to subsidy amount to N241.247billion.

“The associated PMS volumes of 3,453,690,070 litres are, therefore, deductible from the annual mass volume, with a view to determining the appropriate volume of consumption.

“These defective transactions should be further investigated by the EFCC to ensure that all those who collected unmerited subsidy are made to refund the amounts collected.”

“The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) should account for N213.678billion being total of excess payments made by it over and above what the PPPRA identified as paid in 2009 and 2010. The OAGF is not only responsible for the accounts of the Federation, including the Petroleum Subsidy Funds (PSF) and Domestic Crude Account, but refused to provide further details on the account when requested to do so during the public hearing.

“EFCC and ICPC should ensure that the OAGF accounts for the over-recovery figures of NGN 2.766billion and NGN5.27billion.”

The report faulted NNPC’s conflicting figures. “NNPC had two sources of recovery of its subsidy viz: (i) Direct deductions from Domestic Crude receipts accruable to the Federation. (ii) Payment by CBN through deduction from distributable revenues as per the Federation Account Component Statement.
“NNPC, in its submission, claimed to have earned N586 billion as subsidy from the supply of 7,576,726, 157 litres of PMS in 2011.

“However by PPPRA’s presentation, NNPC was paid a subsidy of N667.533billion for supplying 5,470,007,111 litres of PMS.
“By CBN’s presentation, NNPC was paid N844.944billion as subsidy in 2011. In addition to CBN’s payment of N844.944billion as represented on the Federation Account Component Statement, NNPC made a direct deduction of N847.942billion as subsidy in 2011, bringing all claims to N1.692 trillion.”