Should President Goodluck Jonathan decide to withdraw fuel subsidy, it may not take off until April, The Nation learnt yesterday.
Controversy and speculations have trailed the government’s omission of allocation to fuel subsidy in next year’s budget.
Some Nigerians interpreted the omission as a subtle way of saying fuel subsidy is over. But a source in the petroleum industry told our correspondent that subsidy subsists, at least till the end of March, next year.
According to the source, officials of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) met yesterday with oil marketers to allocate import permits for the fourth quarter of 2011 (October to December, 2011) to enable them (marketers) import fuel.
The source added that reports that government has stopped subsidy heated up the system. There are long queues emerged at filling stations in Abuja and Lagos, which he attributed to panic buying.Â
He said President Jonathan and his economic team are still engaging various stakeholders on the issue, adding that at the right time, the government will announce the subsidy removal.Â
Oil marketers said pump prices remain the same because the government has not told them that it will not pay the differentials between the actual price and the regulated price, especially for premium motor spirit (petrol).
The marketers attributed the late issuance of fourth quarter import allocation to the ongoing Senate Joint Committee Public Hearing on subsidy management and process, which has taking the attention of the management of PPPRA.
Also yesterday, the PPPRA announced that it will no longer grant import permit to oil marketing companies without depots.
Executive Secretary Reginald Stanley said in Abuja that only 42 companies have been granted permits to import fuel for the fourth quarter.Â
His words: “It is imperative to draw your attention to the new operational issues as guidelines for Q4, 2011 supply. Allocation of import permit is henceforth based on performance and capability. Only oil marketing companies with depots are to be issued permits to import fuel.Â
“We must bring some semblance of organisation in the way we do business downstream. We have Q4 supply programmes, which we have issued letters, letters and their arrival window for every month and thereafter, the international independent inspectors will superintend every cargo that is arriving on our shores.Â
“We have also gone on to superintend a three-tier inspection system that recognises the arrival quantity of the vessel, discharge quantity, and truck out of those cargos, so that we can reconcile arrival quantity and the quantity that is trucked out”.Â
The PPPRA boss warned marketers yet to deliver on the Q3 permits that sanctions will be imposed on them, including striking out their companies from the importing list, insisting that “such firms have no basis for remaining on the list”.Â
While declining to be drawn on the commencement date of the oil subsidy removal, Stanley explained that when the programme is introduced, the agency would work hard to protect Nigerians and ensure that cartels are not formed to short-change the consumers.Â
He assured that there is enough stock of fuel to last through the festive season, adding that the agency has pragmatic solutions to ensure that there is no scarcity during the period.