…as marketers issue 7-day ultimatum over N800bn subsidy debts
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has taken steps to avert scarcity of petrol during the Christmas and New Year following a 7-day ultimatum issued by Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria over non-payment of N800 billion subsidiary arrears by the government.
The oil marketers issued the notice at the weekend urging the government to settle all outstanding debts including forex differentials and interest rate component owed marketers.
The marketers, under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) and to Independent Petroleum Products Importers (IPPIs) warned that failure to meet the deadline will force its members to disengage their workers, adding that loading of petrol at depots would automatically cease.
But the General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughammadu, assured that the corporation is engaging the marketers on the issue.
Ughammadu said: “The Federal Ministry of Finance and Debt Management Office are on the issue, going by positive outcomes so far. We are optimistic of a prompt resolution of the contending matter.”
The Legal Adviser of the Independent Petroleum Products Importers (IPPIs), Mr. Patrick Etim, had said that the 7-day ultimatum became necessary as all investments and assets of oil marketers are being taken over by banks, while payment of workers’ salaries remains a serious dilemma.
According to Etim, marketers have asked their workers to stay at home from December 1, as salaries of workers could not be paid due to huge debts owed by the government on subsidy.
“The only way to salvage the situation is when government pays the outstanding debts though cash option for marketers to pay workers than other form of payment instrument like (promissory note) would save the intended mass retrenchment.
“As at tail end of 2018, several months after the assurances received by government would pay off the outstanding debt, but as I speak, nothing has been done.
“The oil marketers have requested forex differential and interest component of government’s indebtedness to marketer be calculated up to December 2018 to be paid within next 7-days from the date of the letter sent to them,” he said.
Etim complained that several thousand jobs are on the line in the oil and gas industry, as oil marketers began cutting down of their workforce due to inability to pay wages.
