Fuel Scarcity As Marketers Demand Subsidy Payment

Fuel queues which started to build up Tuesday grew longer yesterday in Abuja, Lagos and other states. Motorists queued up for hours at fuel stations in the past two days before they were served. 

 

Many who spoke to Daily Trust,  hoped they were not witnessing a return to the “nightmarish experience” of the last few weeks of former President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Sources linked the situation to the non-payment of outstanding subsidy funds of about N150 billion.
One of the sources also revealed that in the past one month of the President Buhari administration subsidy funds had accumulated to about N59 billion.

Marketers, who for over two months had stopped importing petroleum products, are said to have been worried that the unpaid debt may have accumulated beyond the outstanding one left by the former administration with mounting foreign exchange differentials. 

He said oil marketers are therefore reluctant to commit more funds to the importation of petroleum products until their current bills are settled. It’s not clear whether the current government is willing to offset the debt to enable the marketers resume importation.