By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd) has disputed the claim by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC Limited that the country consumes about 60 million litres of premium motor spirit, PMS daily, saying the computation is faulty and unbelievable.
The Customs boss queried why the NNPC Ltd would permit the lifting of about 98 million litres from the depot daily if the country only needs 60 million per day.
At his appearance before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance for the hearing on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (2023 – 2025) on Thursday, Ali further dismissed claims that smuggling of PMS was responsible for the huge sums of money expended by the government on subsidy.
“I have always argued this with NNPC. If we are consuming 60 million litres of petrol per day by their own computation, why in the world would you allow the lifting of 98 million litres per day?” he queried.
The Customs CG insisted that the computation by NNPC is not believable, adding that daily consumptions differ.
“That computation, to me, is not believable, because scientifically you cannot tell me that if I fill my tank today, tomorrow I will fill my tank with the same quantity of fuel. And if I’m running a petrol station today, if I go to Minna depot and lift, and I’m taking to Kaduna, I may reach Kaduna in the evening and offload that product; there’s no way I could have sold that petrol for you to account that that has been expended.
“So how do we get to 60 million everyday? If you say this petrol is smuggled, if you release 98 million litres, and then we use 60 million litres, the balance will be 38 million litres. How many trucks will carry 38 million litres? Everyday. That’s almost 500. Which road are they following? Where are they carrying this thing to?”
The actual figure of daily consumption of PMS in Nigeria has for a long time been shrouded in secrecy and shenanigans with allegation that it is over-bloated by the NNPC.
Nigeria Customs Service puts the total volume of PMS imported into the country between 2015 and June 2022 at about 2,380,814,974.418 metric tonnes in 3,703 vessels, while 876,801,931.515 metric tonnes of PMS in 1,296 vessels were exported within the period.
