BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Determined to phase out the long queues and restore sanity to Nigeria's economy, the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol now sells from N488 to N557 per litre.
The new price takes effect from today, May 31, 2023, as announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
This development comes barely 72 hours after President Bola Tinubu ruled out the payment of subsidy on PMS from third quarter of 2023.
Tinubu had on Monday during his swearing-in as the 16th President of Nigeria at the Eagles Square Abuja, noted that subsidy would automatically seize to exist from July this year.
He was emphatic that from the 2023 budget he inherited from the immediate past administration, that subsidy is supposed to end by June, 2023.
News Rider learnt that NNPCL and its stakeholders had at a meeting on Wednesday, May 31, approved the upward review of the PMS pump price table for Mega/Standard/Leased Stations.
To this end, they instructed all marketers to adjust retail prices for the petroleum product across states.
The statement reads: “Please implement meter change as approved, effective today 31st May 2023. We will attend to all locations as it relates to their area of coverage in our network.”
According to the new price, petrol will sell highest in Maiduguri and Damaturu at N557 per litre and N550 per litre in the rest of the Northeast zone.
Benni Kebbi residents are expected to buy petrol at N545 per litre in the Northwest zone, while the average price in the North Central zone will be N537 per litre, except in Illorin, where it will sell for N515 per litre.
Consumers in the Southeast are expected to buy at an average of N520 per litre.
Apart from Uyo and Yenegoa, where petrol will sell at N515 per litre, the rest of the Southsouth zone will get the product at N511 per litre.
In Lagos, consumers will buy the product at N488 per litre, while the rest of the Southwest zone will get the product at N500 per litre.
President Bola Tinubu who resumed at the villa on Tuesday afternoon, held a long meeting with the CEO of NNPCL, Mele Kyari and Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele on fuel subsidy and multiple foreign exchange rates.
Currently, Nigeria spends more than $850 million monthly on fuel subsidy as revealed by the NNPCL.
News Rider reports that in the last 17 years, from 2005 to mid- 2021, the Federal Government had spent over N13. 697 trillion on the payment of subsidy, just as the Organisation of Petroleum Countries (OPEC) pegged the country's daily import of petrol and diesel at 465,000 barrels per day.
In 2022, the Federal Government spent over N3 trillion on subsidy, while in 2023 budget, N4 trillion was mapped out for fuel subsidy. The capital project for the entire country in 2023 is N6 trillion.
This implies that Nigeria spends at least, N18.397 billion to subsidise PMS daily due to high cost of petroleum products, redundant refineries, wobbly exchange rate, and failure to implement the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
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