Market Forces Would Dictate, We Won’t Fix Petrol Prices Again – NMDPRA
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) says it will no longer fix prices or release templates for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
Authority Chief Executive (ACE), Mr Farouk Ahmed, who said this at a news conference in Abuja on Friday, said that market forces would henceforth dictate prices under the liberalised market.
“As far as we are concerned in the NMDPRA, this is not like before when the PPPRA fixes the price; in a deregulated market, it is the market force that dictates the price,” he said.
The development was a sequel to the removal of subsidy on PMS known as petrol.
President Bola Tinubu had in his inaugural speech on Monday said the fuel subsidy regime had ended with the commencement of his administration.
Ahmed, however, said the market was now open for everybody that would import as far as they met all the requirements.
“So, it is not about the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) alone.
“We put the regulation in place, we make sure quality control is complied with, we make sure the product is there and we give licence to the prospective importer.
“We make sure we guide the operations of everyone in the sector whether at the depot or wherever the product is but we will not put a cap to say this is what the price must be,” he said.
According to Ahmed, the role of the NNPC is to fix the prices of the petrol it imported and not take over the responsibilities of the Authority.
“In the case of the NNPC, the organisation is the sole importer at this point. We told the NNPC to recover its costs because they know how much it cost them to import the product and sell it.
“Of course, we also know how much shipping, offshore, ex-depot and ex-pump are. But we cannot tell them to sell at a price because the market is deregulated,” he added.
The NMDPRA boss also disclosed that the Federal Government has officially scrapped petroleum equalisation as well as the national transport allowance.
