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Barely two days after electricity tariff was increased by about 300 per cent, oil marketers yesterday fixed the pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, at N162 per litre. The marketers fixed the new price following the Federal government’s announcement that the product would now be sold to marketers at the depot price N151.56.
But no sooner had the government and marketers announced the new price regimes than a hail of attacks and criticism greeted them.
Among those that rejected or kicked against the hikes were the minority caucus of the House of Representatives, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), and Advocacy for Integrity and Economic Development (AIED).
Marketers’ new price announcement came as Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the agency expected to modulate the price monthly, failed to announce the new retail price.
They claimed the absence of the PPPRA’s template created confusion coupled with the issuance of two conflicting statements by a subsidiary of the NNPC, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC). The two statements fixing two ex-depot prices: N147.67 and N151.56.
The PPMC, in the first statement dated September 2, 2020, with reference number PPMC/IB/LS/020, notified stakeholders that the price had increased to N151.56 per litre.
The same agency, in the second statement, with reference number PPMC/MOD/SALES/346, put ex-depot price at N147.67 for petrol.
With an ex-depot price of N151.56, some marketers noted that additional charges for distribution margin, transporter allowance, retailer margin, bridging fund, marine transport as well as administration charges would push the retail price up to an average of N162 per litre, based on market fundamentals.
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