FG Hints At Fuel Price Increase to Curb Scarcity

There are indications that Nigerians might find themselves groaning under the reality of another fuel price increase.

Speaking to state house correspondents, the governor of Bauchi, Mohammed Abubakar, who was attending the National Economic Council meeting presided over by Vice- President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa said that they had been briefed as to why the fuel scarcity persists.

He said that there will be an NEC committee headed by the Gombe State governor,  Ibrahim Dakwambo which will liaise with the NNPC to settle on a price that works for Nigeria and Nigerians.

He said, “The second issue that was discussed was the issue of the scarcity of petroleum product. The problem was addressed by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC.

“The issue is of course caused by an inter-play of the change rate of the Naira and the Dollar and the price of crude oil at the international market which affects the landing cost of refined products in Nigeria.

“And in the process makes the operation of the current price regime almost impossible without some measure of nile return for whoever is in the process.

“As at today, most of, if not all independent marketers have stopped importing, refine products into Nigeria. It is only the NNPC that has been doing it. And the NNPC has been suffering a lot of setbacks. The highest amount of under recovery.

“By under recovery, it means the interplay between the landing cost of a liter of the PMS in Nigeria and the pimp price of that product. If the product lands at N170 for example and you sell at N145, immediately you know that you have an under-recovery of about N25 for each liter of fuel.

“So submitted his report and the National Economic Council has a committee that has been interfacing with all revenue generating agencies of the federal government under the chairmanship of the governor of Gombe State. That committee has been charged with the responsibility of interfacing with NNPC with a view to determining the correct price for PMS considering the price of the product in especially countries that are bordering Nigeria. Because that is one of the reasons that encourages smuggling of the products to these areas, ”