Nigerians may need to brace up for a new petroleum pricing regime as the Federal Government yesterday announced that subsidy payment to petroleum marketers was no longer sustainable.
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke, stated this at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) conference which entered its second day in Abuja.
She said that the subsidies being paid
to the marketers by the Federal Government on imported Premium Motor
Spirit and kerosene were no longer...
sustainable, prompting analysts to
say the days of the petrol and kerosene subsidy regime might soon be
over.
Alison-Madueke stated that the reform
already being implemented in the power sector should be taken to the
downstream oil subsector, stressing that the negative impact of
continued regulation of the sector outweighed the positive impact.
She said, “The continued regulation of
the downstream sector has its positive and negative impacts on the
economy. But the negative effect is more than the positive. The subsidy
policy cannot be sustained any longer.
Nigerian’s have been faced with fuel scarcity for the past two months
and there seems to be no end sight despite assurances by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it has enough stock in
strategic reserves that will lasts for months.
If the subsidies on both products are
removed, the consumers will be paying a minimum of N144.66 for a litre
of petrol against the official regulated price of N97.
The N144.66 is the landing cost of the
product and the distribution margins as contained in the pricing
template prepared by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency
for the month of March.
For kerosene, consumers will have to pay
N154.36 per litre, which comprises the landing cost of N138.87 and
distribution margins of N15.49, instead of the official pump price of
N50.
This is the first time in recent times
that a top official will provide an insight into government’s thinking
on the subject of subsidy removal though there have been official
denials that nothing like that is in the offing.
Only last Thursday, the Forum of
Commissioners of Finance of the 36 states of the federation passed a
resolution for the removal of fuel subsidy.
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...One Day The Poor Will Have Noting To Eat...Only The Rich Survives!
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