The price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petroleum has not been stable since the announcement of removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his inauguration speech on May 29.
BizPoint reports that petroleum price moved up from N198/litre in May to over N550/litre in June, thereafter jerked to N617 in July.
This, coupled with the fall of naira against the US dollar, caused the pump price of petroleum to inevitably rise further, according to Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, IPMAN.
READ ALSO:IMF attributes continued naira fall to Nigeria’s monetary policies
Speaking to BBC Hausa Service on Friday, IPMAN Chairman of Kano branch, Alhaji Bashir Ahmad Dan-Malam said “as I am talking to you, the pump price of petroleum had already risen in Lagos and some other places.
” We are confused because Nigerians are told that if the subsidy is removed, there would be stability in the price and the US dollar would be available.
“Now, we are in a situation where the dollar in scarced and its rate has skyrocketed to over N900. The moment naira is weakening against dollar, then the rise of petroleum price is imminent,” Dan-Malam said.
He said the situation had affected the marketers to the extent that they contribute money among themselves to buy a truck of petroleum and share the proceed.
The Chairman stated further that “how could we confront Nigerians with continued increase in pump price? i think we have to shut down our filling stations and be watching the situation.” he added.
Also speaking on the development, the National President of IPMAN, Chinedu Okoronkwo, attributed the problem to scarcity of dollar and its high price at black market.
“We can not access dollar to buy the product and it is high at black market. The more dollar rate rises, the more price of petroleum also rises,” he explained.
Okoronkwo noted that the downstream oil sector had been fully deregulated and, the cost of PMS would continue to fluctuate.
“When there is deregulation and no subsidy, the price of petrol would either go up or come down. But if you want to profiteer, those who bring in and sell at cheaper rates would put you out of business,” he said.
