10 November 2013, Lagos – Facts have emerged that the Federal Government has spent about N634 billion to subsidise Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) in the last three years. This figure, which was disclosed by Dakuku Adol Peterside, Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), equates the amount to one third of the nation’s expenditure on capital projects in a year.
Peterside, who berated this scandalous development, said the purported subsidy had never benefited the masses, which has hitherto been suffering to get the product at regulated price, noting that the amount was spent between 2010 and 2012.
It is obvious that certain people are feeding fat on the inefficiency of the existing subsidy regime as most filling stations sell kerosene at exorbitant rates.
This has raised some questions, chief among which is what happens to the monitoring role of the Department of Petroleum Resources. It is certain that until Nigeria starts to refine its petroleum products locally, activities of the syndicate will continue to make nonsense of the subsidy arrangement put in place to alleviate the sufferings of the masses.
– This Day