| The Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) on Tuesday blamed the present scarcity of fuel on the high cost of diesel for transportation. Mr. Benneth Okorie, the National President of NOGASA said this while answering questions from newsmen in Abuja. To address the issues of scarcity, particularly in Abuja, Okorie asked for a small rise in the price of fuel. He asserted that the country’s lack of petroleum products, notably in Abuja, was caused by the high price of diesel. He stated that the market price of diesel was N850 per litre in the market and adding that the money being paid to transporters was insufficient. “If you look at it at N850, and you are giving your driver N1,200 Litres from Abuja to Lagos, if you plus and minis it, you will find out that it is about N40 per litre. “So, if you add it to PMS, buying the deport price and selling here is too high, if you bring it at N40 and you buy at N155 plus N40 which is 195 , you now sell at N165,who will do that business ?it is at a loss . “Even with the PEF, you will not get the product to Abuja, so the answer to your questions is the price of diesel is too high at N850 as at today in the market. “As far as I know, nothing for now to address this situation, the only way out, if you want to know is that they should increase the price of fuel a little to reduce the money spent on PMS subsidy.” According to Okorie, the increase in diesel prices is to blame for the majority of activities since diesel is utilized in Nigeria for businesses due to a lack of lighting and to deliver fuel to filling stations. Although it would be painful for Nigerians, he claimed that the only way to remedy the problem was to slightly raise the price of fuel. Okorie asserts that if the user rate on foreign exchange can be reduced, it will assist other businessmen bringing in diesel at a lower cost. He noted other States like Lagos and Port Harcourt are not experiencing queues due to the presence of ports in those states. The government, according to Okorie, must act quickly or diesel would cost between N1000 and N1500 within the next two weeks. A different strategy, according to him, was to make sure the refineries were operating. Okorie urged swift action to fix the matter before it had an impact on Nigeria’s salaries and businesses. He said that the landing cost of fuel is high and so the only solution remained fixing the refineries which was in the long term, while the short-term plan remained increase in fuel price |
Source: Oriental News, Timeline NG
