Three weeks after the National Assembly approved a N161.6bn supplementary budget for payment of fuel subsidy for 2012, the subsidy account with the Central Bank of Nigeria has yet to be backed by cash by the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.The PUNCH’s investigations showed that oil marketers, who went to the CBN on Monday, were turned back on the grounds that the subsidy account with the bank had not been credited.
Our correspondent learnt that the oil marketers had been issued Sovereign Debt Notes from the Debt Management Office following the passage of the N161.6bn supplementary bill by the National Assembly.
The Federal Government normally issues oil marketers with SDNs as security against any delay in payment of subsidy for imported cargoes.
SDN, which is another name for government borrowing, is like Treasury Bills and can be discounted for cash, though while the former is a short-term borrowing, the latter is for long term.
The issuance of the SDNs by the DMO, it was learnt, was to allow the CBN quickly fund the marketers’ accounts with their respective Deposit Money Banks.
A top official in one of the oil marketing companies confirmed to our correspondent during a telephone interview that they were turned back by the CBN.
The source, who pleaded not to be named as he was not officially permitted to speak on the issue, said accounts of all oil marketers who had been issued with DMBs could not be credited because the subsidy account with the CBN was empty.
He said, “There might be another round of scarcity because most of us are still being owed by the Federal Government.
