OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA has described as false last week’s report that the federal government had consented to allowing oil marketers fix prices of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS also known as petrol.
In a statement by its Execution Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu on Sunday, the Agency it has not removed the price cap on PMS, and oil marketers cannot sell above the stipulated price.
“It would be recall that the removal of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price cap and implementation of a market-based pricing regime was first announced by the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, in March 2020. This was followed by PPPRA’s publication announcing the Regulation on the market-based pricing regime, thus creating a legal framework for the policy”.
According to the statement, PPPRA said the published Regulation “does NOT” confer on marketers the power to fix prices for the product as they deem fit, but rather guiding prices would be advised by the agency according to market realities.
“The Agency shall monitor market trends and advise the NNPC and Oil Marketing Companies on the monthly market-based guiding price, which shall include the indicative retail price at which the product shall be sold across the country”.
The Minister for petroleum, Timipre Sylvia had earlier stated that the Federal Government will continue to monitor the price of petroleum products and advise on monthly guiding prices that guarantee reasonable returns to operators while ensuring consumers pay appropriate prices in line with market reality and are not overcharged.
PPPRA recants, insists market can’t fix fuel price
The Minister further stressed that the government’s role in a deregulated economy was to provide, through the operation of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, a pricing mechanism to create a market-driven price regime.
“For the avoidance of doubt, it is instructive to state that no private individual or group, has the mandate to fix prices of petroleum products, however the statutory regulatory body is saddled with the responsibility of advising guiding prices”.
“Suffice to say that in a deregulated market, the role of a Regulator in monitoring and regulating activities in the sector cannot be over-emphasized”.
