Sequel to the inaugural declaration by president Tinubu that petrol subsidy was over, and the subsequent increase in the price of petrol by the oil marketers, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has unveiled a new pump price for petrol from N179 per litre to N479.50.
The new pump price becomes the corporation’s ex-depot price for premium motor spirit, PMS.
Ex-depot price is the cost major and independent petroleum products marketers have to pay to lift and bridge petrol from NNPCL fuel depots for distribution to consumers at filling stations across the country.
The corporation has come under serious attack by Nigerians, calling it to give an account of how it arrived at the exorbitant price of almost N500 per litre of fuel.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the new prices were products of the interactions with market forces.
The marketers, who are mostly members of either the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have therefore decided to use the prices unveiled by the NNPC as the benchmark to fix their retail prices, which varied between N540 and N600 per litre, depending on location.
Although the marketers said they were not against the removal of subsidy on petrol, the IPMAN National Vice President, Abubakar Maigandi, expressed concern that the NNPCL was allocating petroleum products to them from its depots based on the old rates issued more than eight months ago for the new rates.
Maigandi said the ex-depot price at of NNPC’s fuel depots showed marketers were lifting products at the rate of N479.50.
The IPMAN President lamented NNPC’s application of new prices based on old tickets issued to his members.
“You know the banks are charging you based on the money they lent to you.
“Again, we, the Independent petroleum marketers, have already purchased the product from NNPC after eight months. Now they are saying they will give us the product for this new rate and not the old rate we paid at.
“And it is with our money that they (NNPCL) bought this product. These are part of the challenges we are encountering now,” Maigandi said. source: Mediatracnet
