Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Engineer Elias Mbam has said that the Federal Government overinflated the amount of money it spends on subsidising petroleum products.
Speaking when he appeared before the Rep Faruk Lawan-led House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on investigation of the subsidy regime yesterday, Engineer Mbam said the whole subsidy regime was shrouded in secrecy, fraud and corruption.
“We are not comfortable with the figures of N1.263 trillion because if you do little arithmetic by multiplying 35 million litres daily consumption and the N138 for nine months the amount is not up to N1 trillion.
“The management of subsidy is not clearly defined between the NNPC, PPPRA, finance and petroleum ministries; this has created doubt as to the true quantum of subsidy per litre and the total consumption in the country,” the RMAFC boss said.
Mbam further revealed that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) illegally deducted from source the sum of N615 billion within the said nine months in contravention of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution.
Speaking earlier, Minister for Finance Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also said that the NNPC deducts its share of the subsidy before remitting proceeds of the sale of crude oil to the Federation Account.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is also the coordinating minister of the economy, said, “I want to say that many of the figures we have been giving are estimates. When we met with the Senate in October, we gave an estimate of N1.3 trillion. So, we are reconciling. So when we come back after having talked to our colleagues in NNPC, PPPRA, we should be able to give you accurate figures.”
In his submission, former RMAFC boss, Engineer Hamman Tukur told the legislators that subsidy does not exist at all, arguing that if the government insists that it exists, why did it ask Nigerians to pay?