The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said the federal government was secretly paying subsidy on petrol to maintain the current pump price.Naija News reports that presently, petrol sells for between N568 and N617 in different parts of the country, and the ex-depot price of petrol stood at N580 per litre in Lagos on Thursday.
After adding the cost of conveying it to filling stations and the marketers’ profit margin, it ought to sell for between N620 and N630 per litre.It was gathered that the difference, however, represents the subsidy that the government is surreptitiously bearing despite the fact that there is no budget for that.
In a chat with The Punch on Friday, IPMAN National Secretary, Chief John Kekeocha, said the decision of the government to put a cap on petrol prices meant that subsidy on the product had been reinstated.
He said, “The government is not being very transparent with this issue. When you say you have removed fuel subsidy, you don’t come again and moderate prices. It is like speaking with the two sides of the mouth.
“Removal of subsidy means you have removed your hands, and the prices have to follow demand and supply. So if the NNPC says it is getting forex (foreign exchange) to import products and reduce prices for marketers, are they going to do the same for other importers? Remember that the government gave import licences to about seven marketers?
“Are they still going to moderate prices for those people when they bring in the product? No! You don’t blow hot and cold at the same time. There is no way they can bring in the product and reduce the price and peg it for marketers to sell at a certain level; it means they are indirectly bringing back subsidy.
“If they want to bring back subsidy, let them say it openly that we are going to come back to subsidy because of the pains the country generally is going through. This is because the initial things they are supposed to do they did not do. We have always been clamouring; let the refineries work.”
Also speaking, IPMAN Spokesman, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, insisted that the subsidy on petrol was being returned gradually. He said, “You can also see the analysis that the Presidency made with the cost of the product in neighbouring countries, as well as in the international market. It said no country is selling non-subsidised petrol at N617/litre.
“But that is not a qualitative analysis. You will talk about the purchasing power of your own currency, as it were. In Ghana, a bottle of Coke is about N400, but it is about N200 in Nigeria. You won’t say because it is N400 in Ghana, Nigerians should also buy it at N400.
“So,The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said the federal government was secretly paying subsidy on petrol to maintain the current pump price.
Naija News reports that presently, petrol sells for between N568 and N617 in different parts of the country, and the ex-depot price of petrol stood at N580 per litre in Lagos on Thursday. After adding the cost of conveying it to filling stations and the marketers’ profit margin, it ought to sell for between N620 and N630 per litre.
It was gathered that the difference, however, represents the subsidy that the government is surreptitiously bearing despite the fact that there is no budget for that.
In a chat with The Punch on Friday, IPMAN National Secretary, Chief John Kekeocha, said the decision of the government to put a cap on petrol prices meant that subsidy on the product had been reinstated.
He said, “The government is not being very transparent with this issue. When you say you have removed fuel subsidy, you don’t come again and moderate prices. It is like speaking with the two sides of the mouth.
“Removal of subsidy means you have removed your hands, and the prices have to follow demand and supply. So if the NNPC says it is getting forex (foreign exchange) to import products and reduce prices for marketers, are they going to do the same for other importers? Remember that the government gave import licences to about seven marketers?
“Are they still going to moderate prices for those people when they bring in the product? No! You don’t blow hot and cold at the same time. There is no way they can bring in the product and reduce the price and peg it for marketers to sell at a certain level; it means they are indirectly bringing back subsidy.
“If they want to bring back subsidy, let them say it openly that we are going to come back to subsidy because of the pains the country generally is going through. This is because the initial things they are supposed to do they did not do. We have always been clamouring; let the refineries work.”
Also speaking, IPMAN Spokesman, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, insisted that the subsidy on petrol was being returned gradually.
He said, “You can also see the analysis that the Presidency made with the cost of the product in neighbouring countries, as well as in the international market. It said no country is selling non-subsidised petrol at N617/litre.
“But that is not a qualitative analysis. You will talk about the purchasing power of your own currency, as it were. In Ghana, a bottle of Coke is about N400, but it is about N200 in Nigeria. You won’t say because it is N400 in Ghana, Nigerians should also buy it at N400.
“So, that analogy by the Presidency in stating that petrol is cheaper here is not entirely correct. This takes us to the importance of domestic refining, which will enable us to check the demand for dollars and importation of petroleum products.
“If we actually want full deregulation, there must be local production that will check the rise in dollar. For once the dollar is rising, there’s nothing you can do to stop the simultaneous rise in petrol price.
“If not, it means the Federal Government is subsidising petroleum products, which implies that subsidy has indirectly returned
In that analogy by the Presidency in stating that petrol is cheaper here is not entirely correct. This takes us to the importance of domestic refining, which will enable us to check the demand for dollars and importation of petroleum products.
“If we actually want full deregulation, there must be local production that will check the rise in dollar. For once the dollar is rising, there’s nothing you can do to stop the simultaneous rise in petrol price.“If not, it means the Federal Government is subsidising petroleum products, which implies that subsidy has indirectly returned https://www.reubenabati.com.ng/n-e-w-s/tinubu-govt-secretly-paying-subsidy-on-petrol-oil-marketers-Fuel: Marketers Confirm Reintroduction Of "Subsidy’"
-Fuel: Marketers Confirm……say it’s quasi deregulation
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that there is a re-introduction of quasi-deregulation, where the government intervenes in the downstream sector as opposed to total deregulation where market forces solely determine operations and prices in the downstream sector.
Nigeria operated quasi-deregulation after former President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16, 2021, assented the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law, which the Senate had passed on July 15, 2021, and the House of Representatives also passed it on July 16, and so ended a long wait since the early 2000s. However, Buhari’s government continued to pay subsidy on fuel.
But President Bola Tinubu, in his augural speech on May 29, 2023 pronounced the removal of fuel subsidy and ushered in total deregulation of the downstream sector which led to increase in fuel pump prices, a high inflation rate and the attendant hardship on Nigerian.
IPMAN Public Relations Officer, Ukadike Chinedu, in an interview with New Telegraph yesterday, said Tinubu’s statement through his special adviser on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, that price of petroleum products would not rise, was an indication of the reintroduction of subsidy or quasi- deregulation. Chinedu said: “Based on the report from the spokes-person of Mr President, some of the issues concerning the price of fuel.
Mr President has intervened. By making such a statement that the prices of petroleum products will not increase, the price of fuel will be static, it means that it is what could be called quasi-deregulation whereby government intervenes where it is necessary. “I think Mr. President has done that direction. Since the dollar is not going to shore or going to shore and the price of petroleum products remains, it means that there is a subsidy, either that the federal govenrment is subsidising the little rate between the dollar rate and what Nigerians are purchasing from the ordinary market.
“There is quasi-deregulation. There is quasi subsidy because the dollar is still soaring and has not come down and Mr President said there will be no increase in pump price, so who is subsiding the difference? There is a serious differential, If there is a serious differential, and the pump price is not rising in line with the demand of the dollar and the rate of the dollar at the parallel market, there is a serious problem.
Who is subsiding it? “For now, in line with Mr,. President’s directive, NNPCL has not moved the current ex-depot price. Its current ex-depot price continues to be N587.70. For now, the NNPCL is still the sole importer of petroleum products in the country. It is just a few selected importation that was done by Emadeb and some other private companies. But now, the competition has not set in.
Most of them who want to import are still scouting for dollars and it is very scare for the importers who have been issued licenses. “Those who were given licenses to import can not import because, by the time you finish selling with the local currency, you go and buy another one, the dollar will be two times what they used to buy the former stock so there is no profit.”
https://newtelegraphng.com/fuel-marketers-confirm-reintroduction-of-subsidy/ Mynd44 nlfpmod 
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