Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Federal government today Wednesday may 11th officially announced to Nigerians the removal of subsidy from premium motor spirit" otherwise known as petrol,product to sell for N145 per litres.


Fuel to sell for N145 per litre - FG
The Federal Government on Wednesday approved an increase of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly  referred to as petrol to be sold not more than N145 per litre effective from 11th May, 2015.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) is expected to accordingly announce the new price. Recall that the product was selling for N86.50 per litre.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu disclosed this to the State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that the decision was reached at a meeting of stakeholders presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and attended by the Leadership of the Senate, House of Representatives, Governors Forum, and Labour Unions (NLC, TUC, NUPENG, and PENGASSAN).
The new pump price, Kachikwu said, was to ensure increased and stabilize quantity of the product in the country.
The meeting also approved all oil marketers to import PMS into the country.
He said: “Following a detailed presentation by the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, it has now become obvious that the only option and course of action now open to the government is to take the following decisions:
“1. In order to increase and stabilise the supply of the product, any Nigerian entity is now free to import the product, subject to existing quality specifications and other guidelines issued by Regulatory Agencies.
“2. All Oil Marketers will be allowed to import PMS on the basis of FOREX procured from secondary sources and accordingly PPPRA template will reflect this in the pricing of the product.
“Pursuant to this, PPPRA has informed me that it will be announcing a new price band effective today, 11th May, 2016 and that the new price for PMS will not be above N145 per litre.
“We expect that this new policy will lead to improved supply and competition and eventually drive down pump prices, as we have experienced with diesel.
“In addition, this will also lead to increased product availability and encourage investments in refineries and other parts of the downstream sector. It will also prevent diversion of petroleum products and set a stable environment for the downstream sector in Nigeria,” he added.
Stressing that the government shares the pains of Nigerians, he said that the inherited difficulties of the past and the challenges of the current times necessitated the difficult decisions on the critical national issues.
To cushion the current challenges, he said that the federal government has made an unprecedented social protection provision in the 2016 budget.
He also stressed that improved supply and competition will drive down prices in the long term.
According to him, the DPR and PPPRA have been mandated to ensure strict regulatory compliance including dealing decisively with anyone involved in hoarding petroleum products.
He noted that the meeting reviewed the current exorbitant prices being paid by Nigerians for the product, which ranged on the average from N150 to N250 per litre in the black market.
The meeting, he said, also noted that the main reason for the current problem is the inability of importers of petroleum products to source foreign exchange at the official rate due to the massive decline of foreign exchange earnings of the federal government.
As a result, he said that private marketers have been unable to meet their approximate 50% portion of total national supply of PMS.

No comments:

Post a Comment