Buhari has NOT directed me to hike petrol price, says Baru
Maikanti Baru, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says federal government has no plans to increase fuel price.
After meeting with the president on Tuesday, Baru, who spoke to state house reporters in Abuja, said President Muhammadu Buhari had given no such directive.
“I have not been directed to increase pump price. Even the other price was based on recommendation from the regulated body,” hesaid.
“I am not aware that they are planning to do any increase. You know there are several factors that necessitated that, especially the issue of exchange rate that has moved, and we don’t expect any serious changes.”
The existing template, used by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), was benchmarked at N285 to the dollar, which is currently not feasible, following the new foreign exchange policy.
However, Baru insisted that the federal government has been able to meet its forex demand for the importation of petrol.
“So far, the request for forex for importation of gasoline — popularly called petrol — has been met, and our own supply situation is robust; we are meeting demands,” he said.
“We have over 1.4 billion litres on ground, so I don’t see any basis for increase. However, the review could be done by the right body. You should contact PPPRA, that is the regulatory body as far as petrol pricing is concern.”
Baru said since the federal government liberalised the downstream sector, private sector players have taken over, and they are operating based on demand and supply.
If the price of Petrol has been deregulated, the Federal Government has no business fixing the price except they are making profit from the current price.
Things that should be affecting the price could include: (1) the exchange rate (2) crude price (3) local refineries production. The price should be able to go up and go down (price fluctuation) depending on how those above factors have played their parts.
I do not see how demand and supply should play any part except somebody is milking Nigerians at these terrible times. Some dealers may take more or less profits (price variation)
Your comment is based on what should happen in a normal environment. In Nigeria, ANYTHING is possible. The fact that the man is talking the way he was quoted means they are up to something. All their evil calculations that made them arrive at 40naira per litter in the days of GEJ has been discarded. Mr President is still insisting on not devaluing the naira but what we are seeing is different.
It is only in Nigeria that everything is grounded because price of crude oil is at all time low yet the price of petroleum products in Nigeria is still on the increase! I sincerely doubt how they arrived at the initial 145naira per litre in the first instance. Change for real!
Nigeria we hail thee O jare.