Four days to the presidential election, long queues of motorists resurfaced in the few filling stations that had petrol to sell in Lagos and Abuja on Tuesday as importers of the product were said to be handicapped by the delay in the payment of their subsidy arrears.
It was gathered that the marketers were holding on for the.....
payment of the balance of their subsidy arrears though the Federal Government recently issued N100bn sovereign debit notes to them out of N185bn owed them.
Our correspondent learnt that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency had cut by half the import allocation permits for petrol from three million metric tonnes in the first quarter to 1.5 million metric tonnes in the second quarter.
The marketing companies were said to have demanded lower allocations due to rising import costs and subsidy arrears. The number of import permits was reduced from 42 in previous quarters to 36 for the second quarter of the year.
The few filling stations on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that had the product to sell on Tuesday had long queues of motorists.
According to an industry source, the marketers are trying to force the government to pay the subsidy arrears before the elections by reducing the volume of import of the product as they are not sure what fate will befall them after the polls.
The Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, Mr. Olufemi Adewole, who spoke from Abuja, confirmed that the government had paid the some of the marketers part of the subsidy arrears.
Culled - PUNCH
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