Scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS)
popularly known as petrol is imminent as depot owners were said to have shut
down operations on Monday.
Depot owners were shutting down operations
with the excuse that they have no products.
According to the Independent Petroleum
Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) National Vice President, Alhaji
Abubakar Maigandi, the owners were also closing shops because of the speculated
increase in the petrol price.
Despite the speculation, the Pipeline Products
Marketing Company (PPMC) was yet to announce a new dealer price to marketers.
According to The Nation, depot
owners have already raised their price by N7.
The National Vice President said the depots
have increased their price from N148 to N155.
His words: “Even depot owners are shutting
down because of the expected increase in the price of petrol. The depot owners have
increased the price from N138 to N145.”
He noted that IPMAN was yet to direct its
members to increase their pump price since it was not sure that the depots
adjusted their prices legally or illegally.
Speculations of imminent petrol price hike
have been rife since the price of crude oil soared to $60 per barrel.
The cost of petroleum products is one of the
components of the total landing cost of petrol in the pricing template of the
Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
Besides, only last Thursday, stakeholders in
the industry made a very veiled reference to plan to increase petrol prices
when the Federal Government said it was waiting for the outcome of the meetings
of the Organised Labour before raising the freight cost from N7.51 to N9.11 per
litre.
Freight cost is also one of the components of
the total landing cost in the agency’s pricing template.
The Nigerian Association of Road Transport
Owners (NARTO) had in its 21st Annual General Meeting in Niger State, urged the
Petroleum Equalization Executive (PEF) Executive Secretary, Alhaji Ahmed
Bobboi, to commence implementation of the N9.11 freight cost.
When asked when the Federal Government would
commence implementation of the new cost, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Mala Mele Kyari, told reporters the
PEF ES “made a statement that there is ongoing engagement between the Federal
Government and labour, and at the end of that process government will make an
adequate pronouncement as to the effective date of that figure as contained in
the pricing template”.
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