The Federal Government has reduced the pump price of premium motor spirit (petrol) from N168 per litre to N162.44 per litre effective from December 14, 2020.
Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige announced this while addressing reporters at the end of a meeting with labour leaders, which began at 9 p.m on Monday and ended at 1:30 a.m on Tuesday.
The product currently sells at N168, following the decision of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to increase the ex-depot price of petrol from N147.67 per litre to N155.17 in November.
The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.
The minister said a technical committee had been set up by the larger house to ensure price stability across the industry.
He said: “Our discussion was fruitful. The NNPC, which is the major importer and marketer of petroleum products, and customers, have agreed that there will be a reduction of the pump price of PMS and that the price cut will get us about N5 per litre. That the price cut will take effect from next Monday, a week from today.
“A committee that has members of labour, NNPC, PPRA, Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Finance, the unions – P Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to stand in. This time, they will be appraising the market forces and every other thing that will make for stability in the industry.
“They have to liaise with all the marketers to make sure that the cap is always maintained. In the course of maintaining the cap, some people will even sell below this price of N162.44, if they cut other internal arrangements, like collage.
“This committee will report back to the main committee on January 25, 2021.”
Ngige explained that the price reduction was not meant to suspend deregulation because it did not affect the price of crude oil but in areas where the NNPC, as the main importer, had agreed that it could cut costs, such as freight and demurrage.
The minister said the new price slash was a product of a joint committee of the NNPC and labour representatives, which looked into how to cut costs.
On electricity tariff, Ngige said both sides agreed to wait till January 25 to enable the special committee dealing with complaints to conclude its deliberations.
“The Electricity Committee is still at work. We have gone down and there is a price now. They are now touring the DisCos. They have been all over the country. They have been in Lagos, Ibadan; they are supposed to be in Kano now. Two members of the committee have taken ill; so, they couldn’t continue. But they will also continue after the Yuletide and then report back again on January 25.
“Same goes for the palliatives. The palliatives have been rolled on. Everybody’s hands must be on deck. We want to see that people start getting the effect of the palliatives.
“For the workers: the palliatives concerning the urban poor. We are going to engage and enroll a lot of urban city workers. We will give them some stipends every month for the next 12 months as part of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT),” he added.
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