L
LequteMan
Guest
Nigeria may be plunged into another round of fuel crisis unless the Federal Ministry of Finance finds a better way which will ensure that oil marketing and importing countries are paid their accumulated arrears, and starts complying with the 2010 guideline for the administration of the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF).
The guideline stipulates payment within 45 days of submitting complete documents by importers to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
Delayed payments in the last 3 years has put many marketers in a serious fix as they are under pressure to produce payment of huge foreign exchange differential losses and accumulated bank interest charges of loans secured to import products attract.
Over N45 billion is outstanding to marketers. Some are for the year 2011 and 2012 while about N50 billion is outstanding for 2013.
The Ministry of Finance is justifying the delay in payment with its resolve to painstakingly verify claims of the marketers to ensure that the nation is not short-changed.
The current situation is that marketers find it difficult to source for funds in order to import products even when they win allocation from PPPRA, many of their expensive infrastructures lie in waste and most are set to drastically reduce their work force.
More importantly, these companies’ inability to source funds to import products can throw the nation into another round of energy crisis which a top major marketing company executive said was inevitable
The guideline stipulates payment within 45 days of submitting complete documents by importers to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
Delayed payments in the last 3 years has put many marketers in a serious fix as they are under pressure to produce payment of huge foreign exchange differential losses and accumulated bank interest charges of loans secured to import products attract.
Over N45 billion is outstanding to marketers. Some are for the year 2011 and 2012 while about N50 billion is outstanding for 2013.
The Ministry of Finance is justifying the delay in payment with its resolve to painstakingly verify claims of the marketers to ensure that the nation is not short-changed.
The current situation is that marketers find it difficult to source for funds in order to import products even when they win allocation from PPPRA, many of their expensive infrastructures lie in waste and most are set to drastically reduce their work force.
More importantly, these companies’ inability to source funds to import products can throw the nation into another round of energy crisis which a top major marketing company executive said was inevitable
