The payment of workers’ salaries by the government and other businesses may be impossible if subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, continues, the National President, Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association, Bennett Korie, tells Okechukwu Nnodim in this interview, among other industry issues
Why have the queues for petrol in Abuja and other neighbouring states refused to abate?
The reason why you are having a scarcity of petroleum products, particularly in Abuja is a result of the high cost of diesel. The price of diesel today in the market is N850/litre. You will also agree with me that the money being paid as bridging claims to transporters is not enough. The price is N850/litre and you are giving your driver 1,200 litres from Lagos to Abuja, if you do the calculation you will find out that the landing cost (for transporting the fuel) is about N40/litre. So if you add that to the price of PMS that you bought at the depot and you sell it here, it will be too high. So if your cost of bringing it in is at N40/litre and you bought it at N155/litre, when you add this you will get N195/litre. But you are to sell at N165/litre. So who will do that kind of business? It is already a loss-making business. So even with the bridging claim you will not be able to get the product to Abuja. Therefore the answer to your question is, diesel is the reason for the queues, the price is too high – N850/litre as at today in the market.
Is anything being done to address the challenge?
