Marketers of petroleum products in the country have said that kerosene, the most common form of cooking energy in Nigerian homes, cannot be sold for N50, which is the government’s price fixed for the commodity.
The marketers said the only way to achieve the N50 price fixed by government would be for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to stop the monopoly enjoyed as the sole importer of the product.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said these on Wednesday at the continued hearing of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the management of subsidy funds.
The President of IPMAN, Alhaji Abdulkadir Aminu, who spoke on behalf of the association, said members of the association purchase the product from the NNPC at premium price, hence it is impossible for them to sell at N50.
Aminu said it was discovered by his association that the NNPC and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company were not being reimbursed until recently by the Federal Government and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency for the purchase of kerosene.
Aminu said: “IPMAN’s interaction with NNPC/PPMC revealed that NNPC/PPMC is not reimbursed on kerosene by the Federal Government/PPPRA for years until recently.
“NNPC/PPMC is the sole importer of kerosene to complement local production from refineries (even when no subsidy is paid to NNPC/PPMC by PPPRA/ Federal Government on kerosene.”
Aminu also advised the committee to prevail on the Federal Government to set aside N5 from every litre of petrol sold since the recent increase in the price of petrol was effected for the construction of new refineries.
He said the only way to get out of the challenges facing the country’s petroleum sector can only be resolved by the construction of new refineries.
He said: “Let the government create an escrow account with N5 per litre from the increase in price of fuel for new refineries.
“Let us be specific that this is the amount devoted to refineries.
“The truth is that we need new refineries.”
Meanwhile the Hon Lawan Farouk-led committee has summoned the former Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Goody Chike Egbuji, to appear before it today.
Lawan said Egbuji should appear to shed more light on the running of the agency while he was in charge.
Lawan said of the invitation, which Egbuji is expected to honour at 10am today: “So many questions have been raised on the running of the PPPRA before the appointment of the new executive secretary.
“We need the immediate past executive secretary to respond to certain issues that requires his attention, issues that happened under his tenure.”