Despite repeated denial by the federal government, many marketers have adjusted pump price of petrol to N185 per litre, a survey in Abuja and Lagos on Wednesday shows.
This is as the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) reiterated that the regulated N165 pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, is no longer realistic.
Olumide Adeosun, Chairman, MOMAN, made this known on Wednesday during a virtual consumer protection workshop for Oil Marketers by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission(FCCPC).
Mr Adeosun, who was reacting to the lingering fuel scarcity across the country, blamed the situation on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine which had disrupted global energy supply distribution.
The MOMAN chairman likened the current situation to the COVID-19 pandemic era with some countries moving to halt exportation of petrol in favour of their own national energy securities.
He maintained that it would be difficult to enforce any kind of price control mechanism on marketers who had to slightly adjust their prices based on how much they bought products from the depots.
The MOMAN chairman said the way forward was a phased deregulation of PMS by the Federal Government to reduce the shock on consumers.
The federal government had on June 21, 2022 insisted that the pump price of petrol should be maintained at N165 per litre as stipulated in the petroleum products pricing template. Yet the prices has only remained frozen in the Lagos and Abuja metropolis, while marketers sell at higher prices in the cities’ outskirts and hinterlands.
The Buhari regime earmarked N4 trillion for fuel subsidy in the 2022 revised medium term expenditure framework.
(NAN)