Reps Want Fuel Sold At N70 Per Litre

The House of Representatives on Tuesday faulted the current pricing template for Premium Motor Spirit, better known as petrol, saying that a realistic pump price should not be above N70.04 per litre.



It, therefore, asked the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and Ministry of Petroleum Resources to review the current price template of PMS with a view to bringing down the price of the product.The landing cost of the product today is N119.74k, while the distribution margin and other costs add up to N18.37k, bringing the total to N138.11kHowever, marketers are allowed to sell petrol in the range of N140 and N145 per litre.

But, on Tuesday, the House, acting on a motion moved by Mr. Abubakar Hassan-Fulata, noted that 90 per cent of the current cost of PMS (N124.34k) was introduced by factors that were unnecessary.It said the factors were related to transport charges, which were transferred to consumers by the marketers.

Lawmakers argued that removing such unnecessary charges would not affect the profit margin of the marketers if the Federal Government put all the needed infrastructure in place.In his lead debate, Hassan-Fulata listed some of the charges as lightering expenses, N4.56k; bridging fund, N6.20k; freight, N109.01k; NPA charges, N0.84k; and transport allowance, N3.36k.

He also said the landing cost had inbuilt charges that when removed would not affect the profit margins of the importers and marketers.The lawmaker cited jetty charges, NIMASA charges, storage charges and retailers’ margin, among others, as costs that could be removed without affecting the profit margin of the marketers.