Thursday 12 May 2016

FG: Fuel Price To Rise To N145 Per Litre

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe
Kachikwu, on Wednesday, said any Nigerian entity is
now free to import petroleum products into the country,
subject to existing quality specifications and other
guidelines issued by regulatory agencies.
Kachikwu pronouncement effectively ended the fuel
subsidy regime.
The minister said that all Oil marketers will be allowed
to import the product on the basis of foreign
exchange procured from secondary sources and that
PPPRA template will reflect this in the pricing of the
product.
Further, Kachikwu said that new price band effective
from 11th May, 2016, would put the retail price of petrol
at N145 and below.
“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,” he said.
The minister explained that the decision to remove the
subsidy was reached after a meeting attended by the
leadership of the Senate, House of Representatives,
Governors Forum, and Labour Unions such as
theNigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union
Congress (TUC), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural
Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas
Senior Staff Association of Nigeria(PENGASSAN).
He noted that the persistent scarcity being expressed in
the country the inability of importers of petroleum
products to source foreign exchange at the official rate
due to the massive decline of foreign exchangeearnings
of the federal government.
“As a result, private marketers have been unable to
meet their approximate 50% portion of total national
supply of PMS,” Kachikwu stated.
-Tonye Bakare