The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has restated its position that there will be no increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol until the end of the negotiations between organised labour and the Federal Government.
The NNPC Spokesperson, Dr Kennie Obateru, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.
This came hours after the NNPC General Managing Director (GMD), Mele Kyari said the corporation could no longer afford to bear the cost of subsidy, saying Nigerians would have to pay the actual cost sooner or later.
He argued that market forces must be allowed to determine the pump price of petrol in the country.
Although he claimed the nation was not in a subsidy regime, he said the government was trying to exit what he described as ‘under-price sale of PMS’.
Obateru had earlier in the month, before Kyari’s declaration yesterday, the government was not contemplating any increment in the retail price of PMS.
He said this in reaction to the oil marketers’ insistence that selling at the current price of N162-N163/litre was commercially suicidal because the current landing cost is about N174 per litre.
Obateru said that such decision would scuttle the government’s ongoing engagements with organised labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework for fuel pricing in the country.
