Nigeria subsidising petrol for neighbouring countries –- Customs CG

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, on Tuesday said
that the decision to suspend the supply of petrol to communities at
the border was taken to check the smuggling of the product.

Ali said this at the 2020 budget defence before the House of
Representatives Committee on Customs.

The Customs boss said majority of the retail outlets located at
the border were culpable for fuel diversion, especially petrol.

Ali explained that the agency suspects that the filling stations
at the border were being used to receive petrol and sell at
exorbitant prices to neighbouring countries.

He said, “They get approval to discharge the product
legitimately in the day but at night, siphon it out. This has been
going on for a long time.

“Now, we have restricted supply to 20km before the border. Let’s
monitor the outflow. We want to know where the outflow is coming
from.”

He also said, “Petrol is sold at N395/litre but they buy from
Nigeria at less than N145/litre.

“With this border closure, it has jumped to N600/litre. Meaning,
we are the one subsidi,ing petrol for neighbouring countries. So,
marketers are making a kill. It’s attractive to take petrol out and
sell there.”

On the 2020 budget for the Customs, Ali said the agency was set
to deploy coordinated Information Communication Technology-driven
tools to achieve its N1.67tn revenue target set for it by the
Federal Government.

According to him, the figure consists of N1.5tn for federation
revenue, while non-federation stands at N178.62bn.