The Federal Government of Nigeria has absolved itself from the current hike in the pump price of petrol in the country.
Recall that on Wednesday, October 9, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, raised the pump price of fuel. The price rose from N897 per litre to N1, 030 in Abuja and from N855 to N998 in Lagos. The price in North-East is N1, 070 and N1,025 in other South-West States. N1,045 in South-East and N1,075 in South-South regions.
However, the current increase in the pump price, has triggered reactions among Nigerians.
This is even as the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has asked President Bola Tinubu to work towards reversing the increment.
However, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Thursday, absolved the Government from the hike.
According to Idris, the Government should not be held responsible for the latest hike in petrol price.
The Minister said, “NNPCL made the decision in response to prevailing circumstances in the energy industry.
He emphasized that it did not act on any instruction from the Federal Government.
Idris noted that the Government can no longer fix prices of petroleum products, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
According to him, the subsidy regime ended since May 2023 and the NNPCL had only been paying differential to keep the price within the range it had bee. “But the company said it could no longer absorb the losses,” he said.
“The differential you’re seeing is a result of different factors. One of them is the crisis in the Middle East. There’s volatility in the market. Therefore, the prices of petroleum products are going up, consistent with what is happening with other operators in the industry globally. Secondly, NNPC cannot continue to absorb these losses for Nigeria. Because as a limited liability company, it would be operating at a loss,” he said.
The Minister, however, urged Nigerians to continue to show understanding with the NNPCL and the Government. He, therefore, assured that in the long run the prices would ultimately come down.
Idris said the Government would continue to invest the savings from removal of subsidy to improve other critical sectors like healthcare, education, infrastructure, and security.
According to him, the initial investments of the government in CNG would also ameliorate the impact even as more operators invest.
source: Daily Trust
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