The
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu has said that his
ministry and relevant agencies cannot guarantee rational behaviour of managers
at all NNPC Mega stations nationwide.
Kachikwu
made the statement in Abuja on Monday while addressing members of the House of
Representatives during a special interactive on the "New Framework for PMS
Supply and Distribution, organised by the assembly.
He said
that monitoring was necessary with regard to product sale at a price that was
below those of independent marketers.
The
minister spoke in response to a question on why NNPC l stations which got
locally refined products at little or no cost were selling almost at the same
price as independent marketers, which sold l at N145 per litre.
"The
NNPC mega stations are supposed to sell at a much lower price than the other
marketers but right now some of them are selling between N143 and N145.
"But
that is something we are looking at correcting,’’ he said.
Kachikwu
said this was to "reduce nuisance value potential of the stations in the
metropolis while stations in the hinterland are to sell at N135 per
litre."
The
lawmakers asked the minister to state the obvious by telling Nigerians that
there was no deregulation of any kind but a price increase resulting from
foreign exchange differential since the government still controlled the price.
Kachikwu
told the House that the decision taken was aimed at curbing the problems of
product diversion, hoarding, under-dispensing and pipeline vandalism.
"We
first looked at the number of litres on which subsidy was being paid.
"The
new policy is to address both subsidy issues as well as product availability
and distribution which is saving Nigeria about one billion dollars
quarterly," he said.
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