Petrol Price Should Be N400 A Litre After Subsidy Removal, Says PENGASSAN

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The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) says the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), also called petrol, should be between N360 and N400 a litre, after the removal of subsidy.

Festus Osifo, president of PENGASSAN, made this known while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the association’s national executive council (NEC) meeting, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The federal government has projected to spend N3.35 trillion on petrol subsidies (which may be removed by June) this year.

Speaking on the matter, Osifo said the price of the product, after the subsidy is scrapped, will be determined by the official foreign exchange rate, sourced by Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited for petrol importation.

“Today, the sole importer of PMS into Nigeria is the NNPC. The NNPC is using an exchange rate of the CBN which gives about N400 to N450 depending on the day and depending on the window that you are looking at. So, if you compute that into the model today, PMS should be selling for a region of about N360 to N400 [a litre],” Osifo said.

The PENGASSAN president said the association has compelled all of its organs across the country to make petrol available to Nigerians and has threatened to revoke the licences of any member found to be hoarding petrol.

Osifo added that functional local refineries will not only lower the price of petrol but also create jobs for Nigerians.

“While maintaining our support for the full deregulation of the sector and the significant milestone achieved in this regard, we counsel that efforts be made to increase the pace of the current rehabilitation exercise of refineries and get them back on track in due time,” he said.

Osifo said the incoming administration must address the currency swap as well as sporadic fuel scarcity across the country, while palliatives must be made available to Nigerians to mitigate the impact of the petrol subsidy removal.

[The Cable]