The House of Representatives on Wednesday made a formal declaration of support for the decision of the Federal Government to remove the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, better known as petrol.
Despite the order yesterday of the National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja stopping the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) from embarking on the planned strike over the increase in fuel price, the labour unions have insisted on going ahead with the action beginning today.
After months of speculation and lobbying, the federal government took a bold move to liberalise the petrol market by introducing a price band for the product with a price cap of N145/litre and a floor of N135/litre.
After the trillions of naira spent by successive administrations sustaining the corrupt and hugely inefficient fuel subsidy regime, wednesday the Muhammadu Buhari administration finally summoned up the courage to remove the subsidy on petrol, stating that it would now sell for not more than N145 a litre.
Amid the lingering fuel crisis in the country, there were indications yesterday from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that the product may be sold for N88 per litre at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stations and N88.50 in other stations starting from today.
The Federal Government’s daily spending on petrol subsidy may dropped from the N2.4 billion it recorded in June to N1.07 billion as at Monday this week.
Petrol station owners in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on Thursday, closed shops in protest against government’s insistence that they should dispense the premium motor spirit at the official pump price of N87 per litre.
The Abuja office of the Department of Petroleum Resources has closed down 22 filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory and its environs due to what it described as undue profiteering.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria on Tuesday restated its complaint that the bridging claims by some of its members had yet to be paid by the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, a development it said had contributed to the petrol scarcity being experienced in the country.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has explained that the price of crude at the international market as well as other cost elements such as landing cost determine the amount of subsidy paid on a litre of fuel in Nigeria, noting that the petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke is not responsible.
A litre of petrol is still being sold for N100 in Ilorin and towns in Kwara State. Our correspondent, who monitored the situation in Ilorin on Thursday, observed that some filling stations remained shut, with the attendants claiming that they had no petrol for sale.
Despite the recent reduction in the pump price of petrol from N97 to N87 per litre, the Federal Government has claimed it still pays N2.84 as subsidy on every litre of the product consumed.
The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress on Monday called on the Federal Government to come out with a more realistic template for determining the right cost of a litre of petrol in the country.
