This, however, contradicted the position of Senate, which endorsed President Goodluck Jonatahn's request also at Thursday's plenary.
The President had sought for approval of the money in addition to the N888.1 billion already budgeted for subsidy in the 2012 budget.
The House, while considering the supplementary budget for the subsidy payment, alleged that the late request by Jonathan was an attempt to blackmail the parliament to endorse the proposal to bring the total fuel subsidy budget for 2012 to N1,041,881,608,594, mere 18 days to the end of the fiscal year.
Contributing to the debate on the president's request on Thursday, Chairmen of the House Committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Dakuku Peterside (River/PDP); Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Ajibola Muraina (Oyo/PDP); and Appropriation, John Enoh (Cross River/PDP); were unanimous that an attempt to reach a decision at the Thursday plenary will result in a rushed job.
They believe that the matter would be better handled at committee level.
Peterside, and House Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, insisted that the forensic audit must be presented before the House for scrutiny.
Gbajabiamila also said the underestimation of the 2012 fuel subsidy budget was an indictment on the Budget Office.
Peterside and Gbajabiamila demanded from the Federal Government actual consumption figures of subsidised petroleum products.
"The government needs to block leakages in the system (subsidy fraud). We agree that subsidy is not in our best interest but in the interim we have to live with it and make it work," Peterside said.
House Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, in an address at plenary called for better budget tracking by the House Standing Committees.
Tambuwal's address reads in part: "Throughout this debate, issues around forensic report, actual subsidy figure, actual requirements have been raised, we can only know this if we allow this bill to get to the committee for them to work on it and come back with all these details that we require either for us to pass it or to justify why their request should not be passed.
"Because, as at now we are not sure whether they truly needed this funds. So in the committees' work they should be able to come up with justification for whichever way we are going, either justification for approving it or dis-allowing it.
"The gamut of the entire debate serves as a wake up call to our committees. Issues on oversight, we need to do more of budget tracking and ensure that we are not being taken for a ride by our Executive counter-part.
"So, I believe that at this point issues have been raised, fundamental issues have been raised, we need to be more discerning in whatever position we take, we have the window of opportunity, we have the expectations of the public and in any case all of us are aware that those in the Executive never wanted this fuel subsidy; that is however not to say we should allow Nigerians or our country to be drained by those who believe that they can use the opportunity of fuel subsidy to be carting away money."
In another development, the House has threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and former Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Subsidy Payments, Aig Imokhuede, for consistently failing to appear before the House Committee on Public Petitions.
Chairman of the House Committee on Public Petition, Uzo Azubuike, issued the threat at Thursday's hearing of the committee which continued deliberation on a petition presented to it by Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Ltd. Ifeanyi Ubah, at which both personalities were conspicuously absent.
The Senate, after the Second Reading of the Bill for an Act to Authorize the Issue of Appropriation of N161.6bn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation to Provide for the Supplementary Payment of Fuel Subsidy, on Thursday passed the law in view of its urgency.
Three Senators, Abdul Ningi, Ganiyu Solomon, Ahmed Lawan and Gbenga Kaka, while contributing to debate on the supplementary budget, said they were constrained to support the President's request for additional N161.6 billion for payment of fuel subsidy because they did not want Nigerians to suffer.
The lawmakers said the report of the Senate's investigation into the fuel subsidy regime should be made available and implemented.
Senate President David Mark in his remark called on the Executive to either stamp out corruption in the oil industry or stop fuel subsidy.
"You have all made valid contributions whether from the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) or from the opposition. Nobody went out of track.
"It is no gainsaying and it is not a secret anymore that there is too much corruption in the fuel subsidy industry in whatever system they adopt, and I think the nation must make a decision now on whether to continue or stop it.
"If they can't eliminate the corruption in the industry then the alternative would be to stop the whole exercise of fuel subsidy, and we must take the one that is easier which will bring less pain to Nigerians."
Mark noted that Jonathan's request for the supplementary budget was approved in the interest of Nigerians.
"If this is not approved, Nigerians are the ones who are going to suffer. Why we are in the chamber here is to work for the welfare of our people.
"The nation in my candid opinion must make that decision now because we cannot carry on this way.
"Obviously, they must have anticipated that there was going to be a shortfall when they first made the presentation at the beginning of the year.
"That did not happen, we are not shouldered with the responsibility of the additional approval. And we have done so in the best interest of this country," Mark added.
Meanwhile, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) rose from its two-day meeting on Tuesday with approved revenue distributions to the tiers of government in November totalling N572.9 billion.
This is about N2 billion lower than what was shared in the preceding month.
Also, accruals to the Excess Crude Account (ECA) rose slightly to about $9.66 billion, up from the about $9.5 billion dollars that came into the account in October.
Total accruals from the statutory revenue source during the month under review was N569.459 billion as against the N640.766 billion grossed in the preceding month.
This indicated a deficit variance of N71.307, a development that necessitated the augmentation of the distributions with N59.138 billion. The budgeted distribution for the month, inclusive of cost of collection to revenue agencies, stood at N574.402 billion, an amount higher than the distributions by about N1.51 billion.
Disclosing this to journalists at the end of the meeting in Abuja, Accountant General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, said shortfall in revenues during the month was occasioned by several disruptions in crude oil production and lifting operations during the period as a result of force majeure declared by Exxon Mobil, leakage and fire outbreaks at Trans Niger as well as crude oil theft and maintenance work on Qua Iboe, Brass and Forcados Terminals
A breakdown of the shared revenues showed that distribution from statutory revenue stood at N407.86 billion, while VAT accounted for N62.73 billion.
Others are, SURE-P N35.55 billion, and refund by NNPC N7.62 billion.
Otunla explained: "The distributable statutory revenue for the month is N407.868 billion. There is augmentation of N59.138 billion as a result of the shortfall in revenue for the month. Also distributed is the N7.617 billion refunded by NNPC.
"In addition, the sum of N35.549 billion is proposed for distribution under the SURE-P programme. The total revenue distributable for the current month (including VAT) is N572.895 billion," he added.
On the persistent agitation by state governments for the ECA accruals to be shared, particularly their latest demand that $1 billion should be shared from it, Otunla said since the federal and states had always resolved fiscal issues of that nature through dialogue, the latest demand by the states would be amicably resolved.
Responding to media enquiries after the meeting, Chairman of Finance Commissioners' Forum, Timothy Odah, justified the state governments' new demand, saying even when it was considered reasonable to keep building up the ECA, "you don't keep saving for a rainy day when the roof of your house is already blown off."
He assured that the money would be judiciously utilised by the state governments "to meet pressing demands that will positively impact on the welfare of the people if the request is agreed upon by the federal and the state governments."
The Excess Crude Accounts had risen to $8.4 billion in September, up from the $8.03 billion as at the end of August when the committee transferred N1.24 billion to the account.
Total transfer to the account in November was about $100 million.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government through consensual agreement with other tiers of government had last June set a $10 billion target for the ECA by the end of the year as part of steps being taken to achieve a stronger financial system stability and create a strong buffer for the economy in the face of the increasing volatility of the international oil market and depressive signals from the global economic environment.
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