Financial Energy Review
……MOMAN and DAPPMAN demand access to forex…….
………..Ben Ndubuwa………
Oil Marketers have described as confusion the purported reduction of the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise know as petrol saying that such reduction never existed.
They said no pump prices have been fixed in the last few months. “So what price are you reducing N5 from. What are the components of the new price? Check and tell us who was selling at N168 before” they demanded.
On the other hand the federal government that have been alleged to have announced the reduction has also insisted that it has taking a back seat in fixing the price of petroleum products.
With the Labour Minister, Chris Ngige denying pronoucing the reduction during the meeting with Labour in Also Rock, it now becomes clear that the supposedly reduction was all a confusion. Marketers maintained that they never expressed discomfort over the alleged reduction because there was no such in the first place.
The Chairmsn, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Tunji Oyebanji queried if there was a price of N168 per litre in the first instance.
“I think it’s more of confusion than not being comfortable. Was there a N168 price before now? Who announced it and when? So how can you reduce N5 from a price that didn’t exist” Oyebanji wondered.
On it’s part the Federal Government said it has now taken a back seat in the issue of petrol pricing in the country. Ngige, made this known while speaking at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa Abuja while inaugurating the bipartite plus technical committee on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, pricing framework on Monday.
According to him government did not fix the new PMS pump price that took off in the country on Monday. Rather the new N162.44k fuel price was arrived at from the commercials like demurrage, transshipment and storage.
“Make no mistake about it. Government has taken the backseat. Government did not fix the price that took off from today.
“It was a price reduction gotten from the commercials like demurrage, transshipment and storage. “This Committee is expected to do more to enthrone transparency in the area,” Ngige said.
Meanwhile, DAPPMAN, last weekend, called for full deregulation and unfettered access to foreign exchange, FOREX, from the Central Bank of Nigeria to enable them petrol available to every nook and cranny of the country.
This is coming on the heels of the N5 per litre slash in the price of petrol scheduled to take effect from today, Monday, December 14, 2020.
Chairman DAPPMAN, Mrs. Winifred Akpani, said; “the inability to source FOREX from the official CBN FOREX window by independent marketers is continually hindering the effectiveness of the principles of demand and supply market forces to correct the current inefficiencies in the pricing mechanisms adopted in the deregulation process.”
Mrs. Akpani also explained that inability of marketers to source FOREX has created a situation which can be described as “pseudo subsidy” in the market.
Oyebanji stated that “Nothing has changed. The FOREX issue is still like that. And as you can see, the government has also extended that DSDP (the exchange of crude for refined petroleum products) arrangement. That’s a signal to you that foreign exchange may not be there for us to access.”
