IPMAN Explains Pump Price Hike

The Independent Petro
leum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that its members are not to blame for the hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
The Public Relations Officer of the association at the Enugu Depot, Chief Ugwu Nworah, told newsmen  in Awka that the problem was largely due to the limited quantity of PMS available to the marketers at the various private depots in Lagos.
Nworah said it was no longer a secret that marketers no longer procure products at the NNPC depots.
He added that the private depot owners were selling at a price level that was in line with the forces of demand and supply.
According to him, the landing cost of products at the various filling stations in the South East from Lagos is above N100 per litre.
Nworah noted that what the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) paid to them was increasingly becoming insignificant as it no longer cushioned the excesses to make them sell at the regulated prices.
He urged the Federal Government to make the NNPC depot more effective by ensuring they had the products in sufficient quantities.
He called for the rehabilitation of the moribund Enugu Depot to address the difficulties associated with transportation of products.
“Petroleum marketers are not to blame for the increase in products prices; rather we have been working very hard to ensure availability at the cheapest possible rates.
“It is known to everybody that NNPC depot is not living up to its billings as regards having products.
“This has made marketers to resort to private depots where they are available and you know these private depots are profit-oriented, so they respond to the forces of demand and supply.
“Presently, the cost of liquid content, loading, transportation and sundry is well above N100.
“The PEF they pay is inadequate to compensate for the hike; what the government should do is to make these products available and fix the Enugu Depot that has been down for more than 10 years,” he said.
PMS is being sold for between N102 and N105 in Awka, the Anambra capital and its environs.