6th July, 2012
Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) said Nigerians should expect another round of petrol scarcity if the Federal Government failed to pay N200 billion owed its members.
Chief Sylverius Okoli, the chairman of the association, gave this indication in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
He alleged that the government had not paid the marketers for petrol imported in the second quarter of the year.
Okoli said that his members might not be able to import petrol in the third quarter due to lack of funds and inability to secure loans from banks.
He said that marketers had incurred debts due to bank loans they had not been servicing because of the delay in payment by the government.
He said that marketers had served a notice to the government on their intention to discontinue importation of the product.
“The country imports the bulk of its petrol needs through a subsidy regime.
“The current business environment makes it necessary for us to bring to attention of the government factors that inhibit our ability to import petrol in the third quarter,” he said.
Okoli appealed to the government to speed up the payment of the money.
“Unless the money is paid, no marketer can import because of the issuance of “Sovereign Debt Notes” covering nine months from October 2011,” he said.
“We have huge outstanding, verified and unpaid subsidy claims in excess of N200 billion from the Federal Government.
“Non-reimbursement of the subsidy claims impairs the ability of any company to meet its obligations to the banks for loans advanced for the purpose of importing petrol under the scheme for the Nigerian public,” Okoli stated.
NAN reports that the marketers had written a letter to the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Mr. Reginald Stanley, on the reasons they would not execute the third quarter import permits.