The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday said the federal government
would disburse N156 billion to oil marketers today in order to arrest the fuel
shortage nationwide.
She also said efforts were being made to ensure that federal
civil servants get their salaries.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja shortly after the opening of
the 20th conference of Directors General of Customs and Excise of the World
Customs Organisation, West and Central Africa Region, she explained that the
amount due to oil marketers included N100 billion in IOUs, an informal document
acknowledging government’s debt to them, which was now due, as well as interest
rate differentials amounting to N56 billion.
According to her, “On the issue of oil marketers, we have
really been working with them and we have been dialoguing with them all along.
We paid them N350 billion in December, we paid them N31 billion for foreign
exchange differentials; and by tomorrow, we will be paying them N100 billion
which we gave them as IOUs as well as their interest rate differentials of N56
billion.
“So I am about to go and sign to get that paid and I think
Nigerians would agree that government is making maximum efforts to accommodate
the oil marketers. They are also Nigerians and they also need to cooperate with
us…
“In this very difficult environment where revenues are
constrained, we are doing our maximum, we have prioritised them because we
don't want Nigerians to suffer. But they (marketers) too need to cooperate with
Nigerians and also be good and patriotic citizens.”
On the delay in paying salaries of federal civil servants,
she assured Nigerians that workers would get payment alerts by today.
“As I speak, salaries are being paid, so between today and
tomorrow, they will get their alerts. So there’s no problem,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs
Service (NCS), Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde, has
said he has mobilised 23-member countries of West and Central Africa to
establish a common understanding of coordinated border management to jointly
tackle insurgencies and diseases, particularly the Ebola virus, as well as
improve trade facilitation in the region.
He said the aim of the proposed deal is to remove obstacles
to improved revenue generation of member countries amid the current fiscal
challenges caused by depressed oil prices.
He also disclosed that about 28 revenue offenders were
successfully prosecuted by the NCS in 2014, adding that more cases were being
prosecuted in the courts.
Dikko Inde said efforts would be made to intensify the fight
against smuggling so as to allow people use approved routes for trade, a move
expected to further boost revenue collection for the government.
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