The National Assembly Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) has asked the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency to justify the N5.7bn budget for overheads and personnel for the 2012 period.
The committee, which comprised the Senate and the House of Representatives committees on Petroleum (Downstream), while considering the budget performance of the agency on Tuesday, noted that the said amount was voted for the payment of allowances and salaries of 249 members of staff of the agency.
Details of the PPPRA budget also showed that N2.1bn was earmarked for regular allowances, and had been released and utilised even before the end of the fiscal year.
According to PPPRA’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Reginald Stanley, out of the N5.7bn, a total of N4.95bn had been released.
But the committee wondered why the agency would spend N5.7bn on 249 workers and instructed it to submit to its nominal roll.
The committee also observed that the agency’s budget statement did not include the revenue profile, which should detail its sources of revenue.
In response, Stanley said PPPRA had two sources of revenue namely; internally generated revenue and the 15 kobo administration charge per litre of petroleum products on which subsidy was being paid by the Federal Government.
He also said the IGR raised through Value Added Tax and withholding taxes were paid directly into the Federation Account.
Via Punch
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