The House of Representatives committee on finance has described the conflicting figures being claimed as the daily petroleum consumption in the country as worrying.
Deputy Chairman of the committee, Sa’idu Musa Abdullahi and other members expressed their displeasure after a submission by the Head of Accounts, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Adebayo Adeniyi on Monday.
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He made the presentation before the Committee during its hearing on the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) on Monday.
In his presentation, he disclosed that, the daily consumption for 2022 was 62.95 million litres.
He said: “The average daily truck out for 2022 is 62.95 million litre per day. This from actual truck. Based on our projection for between 2023-2025, we are projecting 3.2 % increase in the GDP, we used that to project the daily truckout for 2023-2025.
“On the average expected open price, at today subsidy still reigns, but we expect that deregulation will come at a point. Based on an average—if deregulated the price of petroleum will be about N272 per litre”.
However, a member of the committee, John Dyegh said, the conflicting figures which also form the basis of subsidy payment is disturbing as Nigerians are not sure of the billions being spent as subsidy.
He said: “I know you are worried about the N6 trillion subsidy for PMS. We are all worried. What is the difference we are hearing about 62 miilion litres and 98 million litres. Have you heard such figure”.
Similarly, another member of the committee, Sada Soli Jibia who also disputed the figures said, what is being told to Nigerians as daily consumption by the various agencies doesn’t add up.
He said: “Divide 62 million by 60 litre struck, you will have about 968, thats about 1000. How maany trucks do we have in this country?”.
On his part, the deputy chairman of the committee who presided over the sitting said, the major agencies involved must come to.terms.with the reality on the ground and furnish Nigerians with all the necessary information on daily consumption and the claim on subsidy.
According to him, there seem to be no synergy among the agencies which gave rise to the various conflicting figures being bandied about.
He said: “Even yesterday, the figure NNPC l;imited quoted is not in tandem with your figure. You people need to reconcile your position. Even on the information—if you keep on sending figure
“On the right path, even on the information available to the public. If you have information being churn out different information being churned out by different agencies, you are not giving us room to appreciate what you are doing. If now give room to allow imagination. Some people will start thinking, where are we getting it wrong?”