There are strong indications that the Federal Government has concluded plans to hike the price of kerosene, from the official pump price of N73 per litre to N135 per litre.
However, Post-Nigeria gathered that the product currently sells for N250 to N300 per litre, depending on the city, town or village.
According to Thisday, the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has decided to increase the ex-depot price to N135 per litre, with effect from Monday, August 1, after the next consignment of about 17,000MT capacity imported vessel arrives Lagos this week.
News reports has it that due to scarcity of foreign exchange and difficulty of private marketers to access the dollar at the official price, PPMC, had assumed the responsibility of being the sole importer of kerosene, thus leading to the scarcity of the product.
Due to the scarcity, PPMC officials have been accused of deliberately hoarding, diverting and hiking kerosene price for their selfish gains, which have adversely affected poor rural women, who mostly make use of the product, as they can no longer afford the price, and have resulted in the use of charcoal as fuel.
Meanwhile, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, which is empowered by law to address such massive corruption in the Petroleum sector, has also been accused of conniving with the perpetrators.
Some independent marketers, who could not get allocation from PPMC, disclosed that some PPMC officials, collect bribe of N1 million, on every truck of kerosene allocated to the marketers.
Another alleged scam by PPMC officials in kerosene importation, is that up to 50 trucks are not discharged in every imported vessel.
According to a PPMC source, after discharging kerosene to the private marketers, this quantity is left in the vessel by PPMC, as Remain on Board, ROB, and nobody knows what happens to this product.
The NNPC’s spokesman, Mr. Garuba Deen Muhammadu, when asked to comment on the issue, said he would find out the true situation from the PPMC, before responding to the issues raised.
Meanwhile, an official of PPMC, who was not happy with the fraud in kerosene allocation, said that it was brisk business between some officials of the company, and the marketers.
He said, “We thought that things will change with the new administration.“It actually changed initially, but is now business-as-usual.“It does not serve public interest to allocate kerosene at N73 or N135 per litre, to some people at the public’s expense, and the beneficiaries will sell to the public at N180, and even N250 in some instances.“This arrangement serves private pockets, and something has to be done fast about it,” the PPMC official said.
Based on investigations from the last consignment imported by the PPMC, the independent marketers were selling at the ex-depot price of between N170 and 182 per litre.
Some of the independent marketers whose depots had sold kerosene between N170 and N182 per litre include: Capital Oil, Eterna Oil; Rahamaniyya, Aquitane, AA Rano, and Obat Oil.
It was also gathered from other PPMC sources, that Honeywell, Aiteo and NIPCO Plc, would share the next consignment of PPMC’s kerosene that will arrive this week.
However, it was said that the PPMC has increased the ex-depot price of this new consignment from N73 per litre to N135 per litre.
Due to the scam perpetrated by the PPMC and some small private marketers, major marketers have shunned the kerosene business, to protect their business integrity.
One of the major marketers said, “The whole kerosene thing is messy, and that is why the major marketers do not want to get involved.“The major marketers are not ready to give anybody bribe and sell above stipulated price.“The whole thing improved when President Buhari came in initially.“You will recall, that Forte Oil became involved, and it sold kerosene at N50 per litre to the public and it was publicised.“But now, we are back to the status quo, and the whole thing has become messy.“The major marketers are not ready to play ball to get kerosene allocation”, the major marketers said.
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