The country may soon be thrown into another round of petrol scarcity if the Federal Government does not pay the N100bn subsidy arrears it owes major and independent marketers responsible for 67 per cent of fuel imports into the country.
As a result, the oil marketers have cried out about their inability to continue to import petrol into the country due to non-payment of the N100bn subsidy claims meant for the first and second quarters of this year.
With a daily petrol consumption of 38.298 million litres, analysts have warned of an impending scarcity of the product if the N100bn subsidy debt is not paid.
Our correspondent gathered on Thursday that the marketers were struggling to meet their obligation of importing 67 per cent of the country’s daily fuel demand amid non-payment of their subsidy claims by the Ministry of Finance.
Though the Federal Government had in the 2013 budget earmarked N971.138bn ($6.15bn) for subsidy payment, it was gathered that no marketer had been paid for petrol imports carried out between January and May this year.
The Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Reginald Stanley, who confirmed this, disclosed that none of the importers had been paid from the subsidy budget.
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