Newsfront Online …Telling the Public as it is
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has said that a liter of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as gasoline, should sell for between N360 and N400 after the subsidy regime is scrapped.
PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, made this known to newsmen on the sidelines of the association’s National Executive Council meeting, which was held in Abuja on Tuesday.
Asked what the price per liter of petrol should be after the removal of subsidy, Osifo said, “Today, the sole importer of PMS into Nigeria is the NNPC. The NNPC is using the exchange rate of the CBN, which gives about N400 to N450 depending on the day and the window that you are looking at. So, if you compute that into the model today, PMS should be selling for a region of about N360 to N400.”
A liter of petrol is currently sold at N184 in some parts of the country and slightly higher in other regions, even as fuel scarcity and long queues gradually subside in most cities.
However, Osifo said that the association has compelled all its organs nationwide to make fuel available for Nigerians and threatened to withdraw the licenses of any member found wanting in hoarding petrol.
He said functional local refineries will not only make fuel affordable but also provide jobs for Nigerians. The PENGASSAN chief advised that the money removed from fuel subsidies could be used to end the perennial strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
He said, “While maintaining our support for the full deregulation of the sector and the significant milestone achieved in this regard, we counsel that efforts be made to increase the pace of the current rehabilitation exercise of refineries and get them back on track in due time.”
Osifo said the currency swap as well as sporadic fuel scarcity across the country must be addressed by the incoming administration, while palliatives must be made available to Nigerians to cushion the impact of the removal of fuel subsidies.
(globalfinancialdigest.com, headline by Century Newsfront)
