The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has warned that marketers have no justification to sell PMS at highly inflated prices of over N300.
This was disclosed in a statement by PENGASSAN on Monday by its National President, Mr Festus Osifo to address the current fuel crisis.
They urged the FG to revoke the licences of operators selling high fuel prices against the regulated benchmark.
Extortion of Nigerians: They hinted that the high price is contributing to the hardships Nigerians already face, citing that one litre of PMS is being sold between N185 to N650, they said:
- “While we understand that the parameters imputed into the old PPPRA and now NMDPRA template have since changed because of some economic vagaries such as exchange rate fluctuation, vessel hiring cost and cost of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) amongst others.
- “There is no sufficient justification for PMS to be selling for a such highly inflated price, thereby subjecting the masses to further difficulties. Even though we have some good marketers who tend to play by the rules, others who are overbearing have deployed methods of creating artificial scarcities to hike the price of the product uncontrollably.”
They added that data available to its members shows there are over 30 days of PMS sufficiency in the country; hence there is no basis for the current scarcity and hardship that Nigerians are being subjected to.
Need for compliance: The association urged the FG to monitor compliance in various locations nationwide with anyone found wanting, saying they should have their licences revoked to serve as a deterrent, urging the revocation of licences became urgent following persistent scarcity of PMS in the last six months, they added:
- “Should this collusion go on unchecked, we will not hesitate to partner with other stakeholders in ensuring that Nigerians are not further exploited. A stitch in time saves nine.”
What you should know: Nigerians paid an average of N206 per litre of fuel (also known as premium motor spirit or PMS) in December 2022.
The average retail price paid by consumers for fuel in December 2022 indicates a 24.38% increase when compared to N165.77 recorded in December 2021.
The states with the highest average prices for the period under review were Gombe at N219.89, Kwara at N216.36, and Kogi at N216 per litre.
