Buhari Govt Speaks On Increasing Petrol Price

The Muhammadu Buhari-led government has again denied that it increased the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, above the regulated cost of N165/litre.

Naija News reports that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this on Monday at an event organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in Abuja.

Sylva claimed that oil marketers in the country solely increased the price of the PMS, currently between N175/litre and N230/litre, depending on the location of purchase.

He said: “Well, I can tell you authoritatively that we have not deregulated.

“The government is still subsidising, if there are increases in the price it is not from the government, it is probably from the marketers.

“But, of course, I will talk to the NMDPRA’s chief executive to ensure that they actually regulate the prices. But this is not from the government because we have not deregulated.”

The minister could also not explain why no action had been taken against the marketers and why there had been no monitoring exercise to enforce the government-approved price.

He said: “Well, I don’t know about monitoring exercise.

“But I know that the authority is fully on their job and the queues will be dissipated very soon.”

Also speaking, the Chief Executive of the NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, said the programme was in accordance with the demands of the Petroleum Industry Act to allow stakeholders to participate in the making of regulations which impact them.

He said, “Section 216 of the PIA mandates the authority to ‘consult with stakeholders prior to finalising any regulations or amendments to regulations.

“However, we do not consider this an obligation or box-ticking exercise as continuous engagement with our stakeholders to enable their business is at the core of our regulatory philosophy.”