No Record of PMS Consumed Daily in the Country, PPPRA tells House

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) yesterday told the House of Representatives Committee on Finance that there are no records of the volume of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) consumed daily in the country.

Addressing lawmakers at the interactive session on the 2020-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), the agency’s Director, Finance and Administration, J.T. Peters said the only record available to them which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation also has access to was the record of petrol discharged at the various depots nationwide and the volume trucked out of those depot.

He told the committee that the issue of volume of petrol consumption in the country had being a major challenge even in the Ministry leading to the setting up of a special committee known as Operation White.

He said the issue of smuggling has made it difficult to determine the volume of PMS consumed in the country daily, hence the inclusion of the Nigeria Customs Service in the committee.
According to him, “The issue of daily consumption has been an issue in the Ministry and based on the challenges in determining the issue of consumption, the Ministry decided to form a committee known as Operation White.

“Members of that committee are drawn from PPPRA, NNPC, DPR, Nigeria Customs Service and Civil Defence. The most challenging factor that makes national consumption very difficult is the issue of smuggling.

“That is why Customs are present in the committee. So, the figures that is used most time for consumption is the truck out figure from the various facilities nationwide. That figure comes mainly from the PPPRA.

“That was the figures we gave you on Tuesday for 2018, 2019 and 2020. So, because of the principle used in determining administrative charges and subsidy, the figures normally used is the discharged figure which the PPPRA, DPR and the representatives of the parties determine.”
In his response, the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Hon. James Faleke said the PPPRA was important in determining the volume of petrol consumed in the country daily as well as revenue that is derived from that.

He said, “the other day, the NNPC told us that they don’t have records of their own and that they pick records from PPPRA.
He said the only records of volume NNPC has is what leaves their depot.