Oil marketers on Tuesday sharply disagreed with the position of the Federal Government that it’s removal of fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was still in force.
They said that oil subsidy had been restored through the backdoor and the Federal Government should be bold to say so, because pump price of Premium Motor Spirit known as petrol should not be less than N800 per litre as at today, if the product is not being subsidy.
As at Tuesday in Abuja, 10th October 2023 long queues have returned to few filling stations that have the product and sells between N580/litre and N617/litre depending on the area of purchase while majority of the filling stations in the territory had no product.
Notwithstanding, the development,the sole importer Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, vehemently continue to deny reintroducing PMS subsidy.
Its Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, denied the reintroduction of petrol subsidy on Monday and claimed that the pockets of queues by motorists observed in petrol stations across the country stemmed from hiccups in products’ distribution from the South to the North and not a lack of supply.
“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market, and we understand why the marketers are unable to import. We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing. There is no subsidy,” Kyari had stated.
But barely 48 hours after he spoke , the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria claimed that there was a return of fuel subsidy.
Oil marketers justified their claim on the ground that the landing cost of petrol as of last week was N720/litre over N100 above the prevailing market price fixed by federal government.
The oil marketers had lambasted the NNPCL boss for coming out to state that the government was not subsidising PMS, as they explained why subsidy on PMS had returned.
“I don’t know why the government keeps peddling lies. When they removed the PMS subsidy, a dollar was about N700 and they made us believe that the removal of subsidy would make the supply of products play according to the dictates of demand and supply, looking at forex as the benchmark.
“Now, this is just simple arithmetic, if you removed the subsidy when a dollar was about N700 and today the dollar is more than N1,000, and you are still supplying and giving products at almost the same rate, what is the magic? They are subsidising products as we speak.
“They are spending billions of naira to subsidise products, and because they know that this country may go on fire if Nigerians buy products at about N1, 000/litre, they keep twisting facts. Why can’t they come out and tell the world the truth?” a report by The PUNCH quoted the National Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief John Kekeocha, to have stated.
He said the government went ahead to remove the subsidy without looking at the nitty gritty involved before implementing the decision.
“You cannot wake up overnight and remove subsidy without considering the pros and cons, only for you to wake up again and start putting back the subsidy into play secretly, and you think Nigerians will not know,” he stated.
Asked to state the implications of these concerns in the downstream sector, Kekeocha replied, “I am telling you that in a very short time there will be no product anywhere in this country, apart from the tank farms that have access to diesel.