There would be no further payment of subsidies on imported petrol as soon as the 2012 budget comes into effect because no provision has been made for subsidies in the budget, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said.NNPC is responsible for contracting out fuel imports and facilitates payment of any subsides approved by the government.Group Managing Director of the corporation Mr. Austen Oniwon said yesterday that payment of subsides would be illegal after the end of the 2011 fiscal year because President Jonathan's budget proposal unveiled last week does not allocate funds for fuel subsidies.'I think people should really look at this, that in 2012 budget proposal to the National Assembly there is no provision for subsidy' It means that it will become illegal for government to pay subsidy when the budget is passed,' Oniwon told journalists in Abuja yesterday.He said the issue of subsidy removal was not 'if' but 'when', but assured that the situation in the downstream petroleum sector would significantly improve when the support regime ends.NNPC, through its subsidiary Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), is the nation's major supplier of petroleum products in the country, providing up to 60 per cent of the nation's fuel requirement. The state-run corporation also controls the nation's only three refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna.Oniwon, who spoke at the end of the 19th and 20th Annual General Meeting of the PPMC, said, 'I believe that when the implementation of the budget starts, it means that deregulation starts.'The Federal Government says it wants to remove fuel subsides so as to free up more than N1 trillion yearly for infrastructure development. But the plan is facing widespread opposition, mainly because subsidy removal would inevitably lead to higher petrol prices and spiking inflation.Already fuel queues have surfaced around the country in anticipation of the take off of the deregulation policy next year.Commenting on the fuel queues, Oniwon said people were unnecessarily going through hardship because there was no basis for the rush to fill vehicle tanks since this too would finish in a matter of days.He said he went round over the weekend and realised that most of the motorists had enough petrol in their tanks but insisted on queuing up to fill their tanks for fear of fuel scarcity.'No matter how you fill the tank it will not last more than one week and the reality will show after that, then why should you suffer yourself',' Oniwon asked.He assured that the corporation had sufficient products, adding 'We will continue to supply sufficient products for their (Nigerians') consumption throughout the festivities.'A spokesman for the NNPC also yesterday said the corporation had enough petroleum products to last the country for 54 days and cautioned against panic buying. Dr. Levi Ajuonuma told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the corporation would ensure petroleum products were available in all filling stations across the country.Ajuonuma cautioned against panic buying and the indiscriminate hoarding of petroleum products by marketers in anticipation oil subsidy removal by the Federal Government.He said the panic-induced queues in some parts of the country had nothing to do with shortage of the product, saying that marketers and private depot owners have adequately supply of the products.'We have assured Nigerians that they should avoid panic buying of petroleum products, because we have products that can last the nation for about 54days.'As I am speaking, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Ltd. (PPMC) has stepped up supply of the products that will sustain through Christmas and New Year festivities,'' Ajuonuma said.Meanwhile, the PPMC recorded N43 billion losses in five years of operations.Records in its annual report for the 19th and 20th Annual General Meeting of the company presented yesterday show that the company has been operating under losses due to the high rate of pipeline vandalism.Oniwon, who is also chairman of the PPMC board, said the company recorded losses of N4.7 billion in 2005, N1.8 billion in 2006, N6.8 billion in 2007, N7.5 billion in 2008 and N19.3 billion in 2009.He said a total of 1,480 cases of pipeline vandalism were recorded in 2009 as against 2,318 cases in the previous year.Oniwon said the hostility in the Niger Delta was reduced following the government amnesty programme, which paved way for the repair of the Chanomy creek crude oil pipeline which resulted in the supply of crude to the Warri and Kaduna refineries.The auditors of the PPMC books'PriceWaterHouseCoopers and Balogun Badejo'told the management of the company that the condition of the financial records indicated the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern.
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