subsidy for the year 2011, the Central Bank of NIgeria, CBN
revealed Tuesday at the on-going adhoc committee probe on
fuel subsidy regime monitoring.
Deputy Governor of the apex bank Mr Kingsley Moghalu who
represented the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said
"the total amount paid for fuel subsidy alone in 2011 was
N1.76trn.
According to him, the apex bank plays limited role in fuel
subsidy management. "What it does is to ensure monetary
and price stability."
He said, the Petroleum Stability Fund, PSF, designed for the
stability of petroleum prices has its account domiciled in the
CBN and operated by the Petroleum, Products Pricing
Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
Moghalu explained further that the "account was opened on
December 15, 2001 and credited with N673.85billion and
withdrew N666billion leaving a balance of N6.257billion.
Also, the Deputy Governor revealed that the Excess Crude
Account is domiciled in CBN and operated by the Accountant
General of the Federation, AGF which had a credit balance of
N2.562,780trn between September 25 2007 and January
2012 .
He said as at January 17 this year, the Excess crude balance
was N19,261bn "and is pertinent to note that CBN is not
involved in the payment of the subsidy. "
It was also noted that subsidy payment went up 8fold in
2009 totalling over 110percent and by October, 2011 it hit
over 500percent.
Group Managing Director, Nigerian Nationa Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, Austin Oniwon at the House Ad hoc
Committee probe on fuel subsidy regime at the National
Assembly, Abuja, Tuesday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.
He said this led to a high demand for foreign exchange which
made the apex bank to set up a special foreign exchange
audit to determine the veracity of the foreign exchange
demand.
"The audit is on-going and this really put so much pressure
on the forex market, in 2009 the total sales of foreign
exchange was 38billion dollars and 9billion dollars was sold
to the oil sector alone. "
Asked why there was a sudden increase in subsidy payment,
Mr Moghalu said, "like some senior officials had previously
observed here of likely manipulations of the subsidies as we
do not have concrete evidence because we are not EFCC. "
"Multiplicity of subsidiaries main factor that led to the high
demand of. foreign exchange and we felt that with so many
companies involved in the subsidy we felt the effect at our
foreign exchange window. "
"There will be problem if the dollar demand becomes so high
without touching our threshold if we go below the threshold
there will be problem.
Asked what was the threshold by the adhoc Committee
Chairman, Rep Farouk Lawal, Moghalu said the threshold is
30billion dollars.
When further queried on who authorises subsidy payment, he
explained that it was an issue meant solely for the fiscal
authorities
BY EMMAN OVUAKPORIE-Vanguard Newspaper
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