Premium motor spirit, popularly known as petrol, will now sell for N145 per litre as the Federal Government officially ended its subsidy regime on Wednesday.
That was the outcome of a meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja.
The meeting was attended by the leadership of the Senate, House of Representatives, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), National Union Of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
It noted that the main reason for the current scarcity of petrol is the inability of importers of petroleum products to source foreign exchange at the official rate due to the massive decline of foreign exchange earnings by the federal government.
As a result, private marketers have been unable to meet their approximate 50% portion of total national supply of PMS.
“We share the pains of Nigerians but, as we have constantly said, the inherited difficulties of the past and the challenges of the current times imply that we must take difficult decisions on these sorts of critical national issues,” Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, said in a statement issued at the end of the meeting.
“Along with this decision, the federal government has in the 2016 budget made unprecedented social protection provisions to cushion the current challenges.
“We believe in the long term, that improved supply and competition will drive down prices.
“The DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources) and PPPRA (Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency) have been mandated to ensure strict regulatory compliance including dealing decisively with anyone involved in hoarding petroleum products.”
Kachikwu said “any Nigerian entity is now free to import the product, subject to existing quality specifications and other guidelines issued by regulatory agencies.
He added that “oil marketers will be allowed to import PMS on the basis of FOREX procured from secondary sources, and accordingly PPPRA template will reflect this in the pricing of the product.”
