The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) in panic of public outcry over its purported increase of fuel price to N212 per litre deleted its published template announcing that the new price of petrol has reached N212.6 per litre. However, a u-turn came at about 10:05 am after the agency published the template on its website, http://pppra.gov.ng/pms-guiding-price-for-march-2021/ and after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation insisted that there was no increment in the ex-depot price of petrol. The desire and pressure to increase fuel price has been mounted by oil cabals who argue that landing cost of fuel has gone beyond the current pump price. NNPC which has been the sole importer of fuel has for two months now been insisting that there is no increase in price of petrol. In February it said there would be no increase and it said the same last week that there will be no in March. But marketers have in the last few weeks been hoarding products in anticipation of price increase.
According to the deleted template which the PPPRA released at midnight, petrol is expected to sell at a lower retail price of N209.61 and at an upper retail price of N212.61. Nigerian marketers usually use the upper band for pump price. The expected ex-depot price, as seen in the template, is N206.42, while the landing cost is N189.61. The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the NNPC to marketers at the depots.
With ex-depot price standing at N206.42 per litre, the March template shows that the landing cost for petrol per litre is N189.61. But the PPPRA, in a seeming U-turn, deleted the template hours later. As of 9 am on Friday, the template was still on the PPPRA website but when our correspondent checked at 10:05am, the template has been deleted.
The website page showed ‘Page not found 404’.
The link was deleted came amidst the public outrage over the increase in fuel price by Nigerians and NNPC insistence that there is no increase in fuel price in March. In the same vein, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has insisted that there is no increment in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit also known as petrol this month despite a template released by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency that the new price of petrol has reached N212.6 per litre.
NNPC said that despite the rise in the price of crude oil in the international market, there is no possibility that there would be an increment in the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) in March. The decision of the NNPC was to allow a conclusion of the ongoing engagements with organised labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship. The NNPC had also given assurances that it has enough stock of petrol to keep the nation well supplied for about 40 days.
