Kudos, knocks trail fuel price cut; marketers fail to comply

IT was an avalanche of reactions, yesterday, to Sunday’s announcement of a reduction in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS or petrol, by the Federal Government, with the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, accusing the Federal Government of “making a show out of deceit by its so-called fuel price reduction.”

Although the various units of the organised labour commended the Federal Government for the reduction, it however noted that the level of slash was below expectations.

The APC in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said, “The 10.3 per cent slash in the price of petrol, (from N97 to N87), is a mere tokenism at a time the price of crude oil has crashed by about 60 per cent.”

New PPPRA template

Meanwhile, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, further fixed the Ex-Depot price of petrol at N77.66 per litre, contrary to the information on its website, which put the Expected Open Market Price at N97.90 per litre.

The Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, explained in a statement issued last night in Abuja that, the development is on account of announcement of a downward review of the pump-price of petrol from N97 to N87per litre by the government.

Counting their losses

Indeed, the price slash had come as a big surprise to all, particularly the marketers, who are now counting their losses from their stock pile.

It was reliably gathered that the marketers and petroleum depot operators were taken by surprise by the announcement, resulting in a hastily arranged meeting with stakeholders in Abuja yesterday.

The word was mum among attendants at the meeting, which kicked off by 12 noon and lasted for many hours behind closed doors, with no operator willing to speak on the agenda for the meeting.

Assessment of new price

By his assessment, APC’s Mohammed said the pump price of a litre of fuel should not exceed N70, meaning that at N87 per litre, the Federal Government is forcing Nigerians to still subsidise the massive corruption in the oil sector by N17 for every litre of fuel.

source:vanguard