Sen. Garba Marafa,
Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, on Thursday said total
deregulation of petroleum downstream sector remained the best
option to salvage
the nation’s economy.
Marafa stated this
in an interview with the newsmen on the sidelines of ongoing 16th Nigeria Oil
and Gas conference in Abuja.
He said that the
Senate had consented and moved for total deregulation of Premium Motor Spirit
(PMS) otherwise known as petrol.
According to him,
total deregulation is the solution and the 8th Senate is determined to give
Nigerians a direction in the downstream and curb the corruption in the sector.
“We are addressing
the governance aspect of the Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill (PIGB)
because we know that PIGB will address the challenges confronting total
deregulation of the downstream sector.
“ We have assured
Nigerians that the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill will be passed latest in
March. The Bill will by the end of March go through third reading.
“The Bill seeks to
address all governance-related issues in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
“Once a bill gets to
third reading, it is as good as passed. We are expecting the bill to be passed
in March or latest by April,’’ he said.
The lawmaker said
that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) would be made stronger in
order to regulate effectively.
He said that failure
of the downstream sector necessitated introduction of PIGB, but regretted that
the bill was not treated properly in the National Assembly for several years.
“This assembly is
determined to pass it and it will be passed latest, by next month (April). We
will later look at the fiscal terms and community issues.’’
According to him,
President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, took it upon himself to ensure that
the bill is passed this year. As a nation, we have to make deliberate and
cautious decision on what we want as a people.
The committee
chairman said that the Senate has ordered investigation into subsidy claims,
because there were allegations that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) had collected over N5 trillion as subsidy claim from 2006 to date.
“The civil society
and labour unions should frown against subsidy regime and embrace total
deregulation.
“ If you combine
NNPC and marketers’ subsidy claims, you will see that it is over N9 trillion in
the last 10 years. This is almost twice of our national budget.
“I wondered if the
common man gets value for this subsidy. If the money was directed into other
infrastructure development, we would have gone far in infrastructure building.
“Diesel has been
deregulated and we are better off; why are Nigerians afraid of subsidy removal?
Right now, government is indirectly paying subsidy.
“We have to be
realistic and take the right decision; we have to choose between building more
infrastructure and consuming subsidy.
“Deregulation will
promote local refining of crude oil and create more value and generate
employment,’’ he said.
Marafa explained
that competition would push down prices of petroleum prices in the long run and
that hypocrisy of the elite was regulating the price.
“All the people
benefiting from fuel importation will never let deregulation to happen,” he
said.
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