The House of Representatives yesterday called on the ministry of petroleum resources and Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to review downward the current price of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) to N70.04 per litre.
The House also resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to interface with the ministry of petroleum resources on the review. These resolutions by the house followed a motion sponsored by Abubakar Fulata.
“The current template for the price of PMS could be reviewed downwards without affecting the profit margin of marketers and transporters and also contribute to reducing the current inflationary trend in the economy,” the legislator said.
“The provision of N4.56 in the price template for lightering services is absolutely unnecessary as, in line with international practice; all ships are supposed to dock at the harbour but in the case of Nigeria however, the water in the habour was shallow due to siltation, which required urgent dredging.
“Though the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is paid N0.84 for every litre of petrol, it has failed to dredge the various docking areas, as a result of which ships wait at the high sea and discharge their own cargo in smaller vessels and for this inefficiency of the NPA, Nigerians are asked to pay N4.56 for every litre of petrol, which would have been necessary if all docking areas have been dredged.”
He added that the provision of N2.00 on each litre in the template for the maintenance of storage facilities does not benefit government facilities located at over 21 fuel depots in the country.
“A realistic template will bring down the price of petrol to N70.04 per litre,” he said.
The green chamber further directed the NPA to dredge all harbors within a period of one year.
The house adopted the motion after it was put to a voice vote by Yakubu Dogara, the speaker.
The committee is expected to report back to the house within eight weeks for further legislative action.
There have been speculations that pump price of petrol could be increased again, but the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) inssted that there was no plan to raise it above the current limit of N145/litre.
