BREAKING: FG Increases Petrol Price to N212 Per Litre

By Dipo Olowookere

The federal government has increased the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) commonly called petrol to N212.61 per litre.

This announcement was made on Thursday night by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), an organisation established by the government to control the price of petroleum products in the country.

Before now, there had been rumours that the government was planning to hike the price of the commodity and this brought about the reemergence of queues at petrol stations in some parts of Abuja and Lagos. However, the government refuted the rumours and consumers were assured that such was not in the plan at the moment.

The fears arose as the price of crude oil at the international market was rising in the past days and hit $71 per barrel a few days ago before crashing to $67 per barrel.

As of last night, it was getting close to $70 per barrel.

While some Nigerians were already sleeping, the PPPRA released a price template for petrol for the month of March 2021 and in the document obtained by Business Post, the agency said a litre of fuel should be sold between N209.61 and N212.61, while the ex-depot price was pegged at N206.42 per litre.

Before the increment, the product was selling at a retail price of N162 per litre at some retail fuel stations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), while at other private fuel stations, it was sold above N170 per litre.

Giving a breakdown of how it arrived at the new figures, the PPPRA said the expected ex-coastal price of petrol for the month is N175.73 per litre.

It said after the N13.88 fees collected as average lightering expenses, NPA, NIMASA charge, jetty thru’ put charge, storage charge and average financing cost, the landing cost of petrol in Nigeria stood at N189.61 per litre.

The PPPRA further said the fees collected as wholesalers margin, administrative charge, transporters allowance, bridging fund and marine transport average, the ex-depot price stood at N206.42 per litre and with a retailers margin of N6.19 per litre, the price band was fixed at N209.61/litre and N212.61/litre.