Ezrel Tabiowo and Taiye Odewale
The current N145 per litre fixed for Premium Motor Spirit ( PMS ) otherwise known as fuel, is no longer sustainable said the federal government of Nigeria.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachickwu who made the declaration to the National Assembly joint committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) yesterday, explained that unsustainability of the price fixed in the first quarter of 2016 arose as a result of steady increase in the price of crude in the international market which was $48 in 2016 as against $67 it is now.
Consequently according to him, the landing cost of PMS which was N133.28k per litre is now N171 per litre, which has resulted into stoppage of importation of the product by independent marketers.
The Minister disclosed further as a result of the N26 difference per litre between the current landing cost of the product ( N171) and pump price of N145, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC) has been incurring loss of about N800-N900million on daily basis of importation of 25million litres, which in cumulative term is about N85.5billion now.
Details later…
