Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or Petrol is still selling at N165 per litre across the country but there are plans to deregulate the sector and allow market forces to determine the pump price of the product, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timpre Sylva said.
The minister who spoke during a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday said it had reached an agreement with organised labour to deregulate the downstream petroleum sector as part of the provisions in the new Petroleum Industry Act.
The new law signed by President Muhammadu Buhari enables oil marketers to fix prices based on market forces.
“No fuel price increase at least for now. We are starting the implementation of that aspect (deregulation) now. We would do that only when we have put many things in places to cushion the effects on Nigerians,’’ Sylva said.
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“… we agreed between labour and us that we need to put a framework in place for the implementation of deregulation.
“Because more or less, there is a consensus across the table now that deregulation is desirable. But how do we achieve it? That’s the question now. We and the organised labour have agreed and so we are now in the process of putting the infrastructure and process in place.”
He added, “Once we are able to agree on that process with labour, then we are ready to deregulate.
“What the Act provides is that products will be sold at market dictated prices. But we are mindful of the fact that this will bring some hardship and that is why we are not going to jump to implement it immediately.
“The implementation framework will take care of that as well as how we are going to alleviate the sufferings that this might bring.”
