• PPPRA puts Market Price at N134.60 Per Litre
• DPR Warns Against Fake Officials
By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), on Monday, released a new template for Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) which puts its open market price at N134.60 per litre.
With the new price, the Federal Government now spends N47.60 per litre on petrol subsidy, amounting to N1.90 billion daily, at current consumption volume estimated at 40 million litres daily nationwide.
PMS at filling stations is sold at the government regulated price of N87/litre.
PPPRA said on its website on Monday that the new pricing template took effect from Friday, June 19, 2015 and was based on Platts Prices for that day.
A breakdown of the template per litre showed that the off-shore price is N107.13, traders margin N1.47, lightering expenses N4.47, NPA 0.77, financing N1.75, jetty depot through put charge N0.80, and storage charge, N3.00.
This brings the landing cost to N119.11 per litre.
The distribution margin according to the agency is made up of retailers N4.60, transporters N2.99, dealers N1.75, bridging fund N5.85, Marine Transport Average (MTA) N0.15, and administrative charge N0.15.
With this, the distribution margin came to N15.49 and open market price of N134.49 per litre.
PPPRA placed the ex-depot price (for collection) at N77.66.
With only N143billion provided for petrol subsidy in the 2015 budget, the fund would last for just 75 days based on the new template.
Audit of the subsidy regime from 2006 to 2012 by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) revealed that about N4.5 trillion has been spent on the subsidy of PMS. Added to the figures for 2013 and 2014 the amount is expected to top N6trillion.
From December last year alone, about N500 billion have been paid to the oil marketers as subsidy.
The National Association Energy Economists (NAEE) had last weekend advocated the removal of the subsidy, because it benefits the rich more, rather than the income redistribution it was intended to achieve.
The group argued that though there was nothing wrong with government’s intervention in economic system, such intervention must be significantly more beneficial to the society than the economic losses it brings.
The immediate past president of the group, Adeola Adenikinju explained to newsmen in Abuja that cost of subsidy has crippled government operations.
He noted that the subsidy issue would be one that the new government needs to make immediate decision on.
Meanwhile the Abuja Zonal of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has raised the alarm over persons impersonating its officials at petrol stations.
DPR cautioned filling station owners and other marketers against falling victims of phantom DPR officials.
DPR spokesman in Abuja Mohammed Saidu said some fraudulent persons have cashed in on the fuel scarcity situation to defraud some unsuspecting marketers, thereby causing overpricing of fuel in some areas.
“The outcome of this scarcity has cost us a lot where people now parade themselves and go to filing stations extorting money from marketers in the name of DPR”, he stated
He said the fraudsters were going around filling stations telling marketers that they could sell at any amount they wanted as long as they ‘settle them’ (fake officials).
“That is why we are still having this problem of over pricing in some of the suburb areas within Federal Capital Territory” he said.
The spokesperson called on marketers to be wary of fraudsters that claimed to be DPR officials who go to filling stations to extort money from them, stressing that no official of the department goes on inspection alone and in private vehicle.
“We want to warn Nigerians that before they deal with DPR, make sure you are dealing with right official by identifying himself”, he said.
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