Fuel Subsidy To Get Additional N109bn For October, December
BEVERLY HILLS, November 30, (THEWILL) – Facts emerged on Monday that Federal Government might require N109 billion for the payment of fuel subsidy for October to December 2015 fiscal year.
This is in addition to the N413.36 billion requested in the 2015 supplementary budget by President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was revealed at a meeting held in Abuja, at the instance of the Joint House Committees on Appropriation, Finance, Aids, Loans and Debt Management with Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) on the 2015 supplementary budget.
Adeyinka Ajayi, chairman of the Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management, who confirmed the development, noted that there was high probability for upward review of the subsidy component of the 2015 supplementary budget.
“The representative of the Group Managing Director of NNPC (Dr. Jamila Shuara) informed the joint committee that the budget proposal as presented by Mr. President, would only cover calculations up to October 2015, and that there were excesses that would be required to cover October to December, which is approximately N109 billion.
“So, we are technically dealing with a potential increase to the N413 billion as proposed by the President,” he said.
Ajayi however noted that joint committee would treat the information as a ‘finding’ since it was yet to be presented to the House.
“The information is not yet before the parliament, it would be a finding, as part of the mandate given to the joint committee and we would treat it as such,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ad-hoc committee investigating the non-implementation of the capital budget of the 2015 appropriation had uncovered N80.585 billion spent on the subsidy of premium motor spirit (PMS) and dual-purpose kerosene as of end of July 2015.
Financial report of government expenditure on fuel subsidy showed that N226.1 billion was spent against the N145.5 billion appropriated for in the 2015 Appropriation Act.
The excess spent on fuel subsidy was not part of the N413,363,134,505 in the 2015 supplementary budget submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly.
The infraction was confirmed by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the 'Non-implementation of the capital projects in the Appropriation Act, 2015', chaired by Aliyu Pategi.
In its recommendation, the ad-hoc committee noted that, “A situation where the sum of N145.515 billion was appropriated for petrol and kerosene subsidy by the National Assembly and the Executive have already spent N226.1 billion as at 31st July 2015, is unacceptable.”
Going forward, the ad-hoc committee however urged “no money should be spent by the Executive arm of government without approval by the National Assembly. Any extra expenditure must be supported by supplementary appropriation.”
Members of the ad-hoc committee during the investigative public hearing had expressed displeasure over the incoherence in the presentations of officials of Federal Ministry of Finance, Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) and Budget Office on the 2015 budget implementation.
Findings of the ad-hoc committee showed that Federal Government secured N882.122 billion new borrowing as at 31st August 2015 to fund recurrent expenditure including ‘bail-out’ given to State governments to offset backlog of workers’ salaries, in breach of sections 27(1) and 41(1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.
Additional financing items worth N1.043 trillion was also available to Federal Government for the implementation of the budget as of end of July 2015.
However, from the N556,995,465,449 appropriated for capital projects, paltry sum of N114.2 billion was cash-backed out of the N194.49 billion approved by the Finance ministry.
Findings also showed that out of the N3,452,355,000,000 projected revenue for the year, actual receipts account into the treasury was N1,856,993,000,000 against the sum of N2,013,874,000,000, representing shortfall of N156.881 billion as of July 31, 2015.