By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has left some Nigerians confused over revelations by the presidency on Tuesday that the current pump price of N568 per litre in Lagos and N617/$1 in other parts of the country will remain despite concerns raised by oil marketers that the true price should be at N720 per litre.
A few days ago, it was reported that the price of petrol may increase to N720 per litre because the landing cost and others were now at about N651 per litre.
The tension caused by this forced the retail subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to allay the fears of consumers in a statement.
The state-owned oil firm said it was not planning to increase the pump price.
It was rumoured on Tuesday that the government of President Bola Tinubu was planning to adopt the method deployed by his Kenyan counterpart, Mr William Ruto, by introducing a temporary fuel subsidy to douse the tension.
But yesterday, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, the spokesman for President Tinubu, said there was no plan to return subsidy into the system.
He stressed that, “Mr President is convinced based on information before him that we can maintain current pricing without reversing our deregulation policy,” adding that this will be done “by swiftly cleaning up existing inefficiencies within the midstream and downstream petroleum sector.”
This move is coming after the inflation rate climbed to a fresh 18-year high as data on Tuesday from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that prices rose an annual 24.1 per cent in July, compared with 22.8 per cent in June.
The top contribution came from food and non-alcoholic beverages at 12.5 per cent, while housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels contributed around 4.03 per cent, followed by clothing & footwear at 1.8 per cent, while transport amounted to 1.6 per cent of the surge in prices.
Mr Tinubu, during his inauguration in May, removed petrol subsidies, which cost the government N4.3 trillion last year.
He said the erstwhile administration of Muhammadu Buhari ensured that the 2023 budget did not have a provision for a fuel subsidy regime beyond June 30.
Some analysts have argued that if the real market pump price is N720 per litre and the government insists on selling the product at N568 per litre, it means subsidies are being paid to make citizens purchase petrol at a cheaper rate.
Modupe Gbadeyanka