The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has insisted that negotiation between organised labour and the Federal Government to determine a new pump price of petrol has not been concluded.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress said a decision on the new price of petrol will be reached today, Friday.
State governors had on Wednesday proposed that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, be increased from N162 per litre to a minimum of N380 per litre.
This represents 134.57 percent increment in pump price of the product.
NNPC stated that there was no official announcement of any price hike for the product.
The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who headed the committee on fuel subsidy said that the removal of subsidies should be immediate to save the economy.
While presenting the recommendation, El-Rufai said N408.5 litre is the appropriate price in the circumstance but that with concessions to labour unions, N380 per litre could be the minimum.
He explained that smugglers and illegal markets in neighbouring African countries were taking advantage of the subsidy regime.
El-Rufai stated, “The committee recommends PMS pump price increment from the current N162per litre to N408.5 per litre (negotiations with organized labour unions). N380per litre (settlement with organized labour).
“Even though we all supported deregulation of petroleum products prices last year, this agreement was suspended by the Federal Government because of a threat of industrial action by unions. This is the root of the problem and now we are back to losing between N70bn to N210bn per month.”
He further explained that in the 2021 budget the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had committed to remit a minimum of N120 billion per month to the federation account but had not been able to fulfill it.
