The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on the Federal Government to settle all debts allegedly owed oil marketers to avert mass sack of workers in the sector.
The union also believed that the payment would engender growth of not only the downstream sector but all sectors of the oil and gas industry and develop the nation’s economy.
The senior staff trade union made the call against the backdrop of the threat by the marketers to embark on massive retrenchment of their employees if the government refused to settle the over N720 billion subsidy arrears. The debts, according to the marketers, were among the outstanding subsidy owed importers of petroleum products, accrued interest on loans from banks and exchange rate differentials, which made them to halt importation of refined petroleum products, leaving only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as sole importers.
PENGASSAN stated further that the government pay the debt owed marketer to show it is genuinely interested in the growth of the downstream sector and to attract more investments to it.
