FG Has Not Removed Petrol Subsidy – TUC

The Rivers State
chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has stated that the Federal Government has not finally removed the controversial petrol subsidy as Nigerians are made to believe.
Speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, the union’s state chairman, Comrade Chika Onuegbu, said what the government has rather done was to review the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPRA) template.
Onuegbu said “I don’t want to take the position that the government has removed subsidy, my position is that the government has reviewed the PPPRA template and has seen clearly that at the price of N86.50 subsidy will no longer be paid because there is nothing to subsidise and, therefore, Nigerians can buy the product at that price and the government will not have to pay marketers any more.”
The TUC boss stressed the need for strict compliance with the new pump price of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.
He said the product is still being sold across the country at a very astronomical price far above the new regulated price.
Onuegbu explained that despite what the government has done, Nigerians should not expect the marketers to hurriedly comply given the character of the marketers operating in the country, stressing that Nigerian marketers, at every opportunity they had, wanted to sell at N130 or N140 even when the official pump price was N87 per litre.
He said the marketers were manipulating the prices because of lack of collaboration in the enforcement of the new pump price of petroleum products.
The labour leader further said that as far as he is concerned and that is the opinion of those who are informed about the industry, there is no subsidy anywhere, stressing that the PPPRA pricing template had some inefficiencies until the recent review.
However, the revised PPPRA template as of December 31, 2015 put the estimated open market price of petrol at N84.78 for the NNPC fuel stations across the country and N85.1 for station run by other marketers in the country.
The estimate open market price is usually the summation of the handing cost of petrol and subtotal margins. Such margins are for retailers, transporters, dealers bridging fund, marine transport average and administrative charge.

Stories by Philip Okparaji