The Department of Petroleum Resources on Tuesday attributed the current fuel scarcity across the country to the non-renewal of contracts of some independent marketers to import the product.
The Director of the DPR, represented by the Zonal Operations Controller, Abuja, Aliyu Halidu, stated this at the budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream).
Halidu said that the non-payment of subsidy fund to the marketers by government had also hindered the importation of the product, resulting in shortage in supply.
He said that the shortage in supply of the Premium Motor Spirit was equally affected by the increased activities of illegal bunkering in the country.
Halidu urged the lawmakers to expedite action on the process of legalising bunkering, in addition to resuscitating other laws, which could facilitate elimination of illegal bunkering from the system.
According to him, the Department had already forwarded a proposal to the office of the National Security Adviser in respect to legalising bunkering to curtail illegal operations.
He said that the NSA had given the assurance that the relevant laws would be resuscitated to help tackle all the problems emanating from illicit bunkering.
The Director also urged the Senate to expedite action on the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill to help strengthen the DPR’s regulatory powers.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Emmanuel Paulker (PDP-Bayelsa) decried the DPR’s low revenue projection in the 2014 budget.
Paulker said that as a key agency of government with high revenue potentials, its annual revenue projection should be reasonably high.
The Department had proposed a projected revenue of N900 million.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuleri, also appeared before the Committee on Foreign Affairs to defend the ministry’s budget.
The Minister told the committee that the ministry had opened a consulate in Cameroon as part of efforts to address the current security challenges in the country.
Onwuleri said the security challenges in the North Eastern part of the country prompted the opening of the consulate in Cameroon to allow the Nigerian Government interface with the Cameroonian counterpart.
This, Onwuleri said, was because there had been reports that the insurgents attack and run into Cameroon to hide.
She appealed to the committee to prevail on the Ministry of Finance to stop reducing the budget of the ministry as it affects its performance, especially in its missions abroad.
The Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said that some Nigerian students under the Amnesty Programme were being detained by Malaysian and Ukrainian immigration authorities.
He appealed to the ministry to look into the issue with a view of resolving it.
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