The Senate Monday, made an addition of N108 billion to the proposed N465.3 billion supplementary budget submitted to it by the president a few weeks ago. The addition was to carter for subsidy claims for the months of October to December.
This directive came from the Senate Committee on Appropriation in Abuja on Monday. Members of the committee said the subsidy claims were due for payment to major oil marketers between October and this month which was not included in the N413 billion subsidy claims covering January to September 2015.
In a related development the committee also ordered the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to provide details of the N437 billion which had so far been paid to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as its subsidy claims, but which was not appropriated by the National Assembly.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Goje, said that the inclusion of the N108 billion would enable the Senate to approve the money so that oil marketers would not hold Nigerians to ransom as the yuletide approaches. The fuel scarcity is yet to abate even after three weeks.
-Emmanuel Ikechukwu
