Guardian / Nigeria: The House of Representatives yesterday urged reduction of the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol to N70 per litre.
Adopting a motion sponsored by Abubakar Hassan Fulata at the plenary session presided over by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the lawmakers urged the Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources to review the current price template for PMS with a view to bringing down the price of the product.
The lawmakers, who resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to interface with the ministry on the issue, also urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to dredge all harbours within one year to enable ships to dock.
While moving the motion, Fulata maintained that the template for the price of PMS could be reviewed downward without affecting the profit margin of marketers and transporters of the product.
Arguing that a downward review of the product would surely reduce inflation, he remarked that a realistic template would bring down the price of petrol to N70.04 per litre.
The lawmaker, who noted that over 90 per cent of the price of PMS was accounted for by transport-related charges, he said the only reason foreign vessels charged higher for lifting the PMS was that the nation’s carriers, which were supposed to lift 50 per cent of the product didn’t have the capacity to do so as a result of which the NNPC often resorted to chartering vessels at higher cost.
He observed that the provision of N4.56 in the price template for lightering services was absolutely unnecessary in line with international practices, since all ships were supposed to dock at the harbour.
He remarked that it was unfortunate that in the case of Nigeria however, the water in the habour was shallow due to silation, which required urgent dredging.
He added: “Although the NPA was paid N0.84 for every litre of petrol, it had failed to dredge the various docking areas, as a result of which ships waited at the high sea and discharged their cargoes in smaller vessels and for this inefficiency of the NPA, Nigerians were made to pay N4.56 for every litre of petrol.”
