OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The federal government has slashed Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol by about N6 per litre.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige made the announcement for the price reduction on Tuesday while fielding questions from reporters at the end of a meeting with labour leaders which began at 9 pm on Monday and ended at 1:30 am.
According to him, government reduced the pump price of petrol from N168.44 per litre to N162.44 per litre effective from December 14, 2020.
The minister, however, did not quote any data from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, an agency under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources saddled with the statutory power to announce price adjustments.
The product presently sells at N168, following the decision of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Federal Government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to increase the ex-depot price of petrol from N147.67 per litre to N155.17 per litre in November.
The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.
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The Minister said a technical committee has been set up by the larger house to ensure price stability in the industry.
Ngige stated that the committee, which will report back to the larger house on the 25 of January next year will be appraising the market forces and every other thing that will make for stability in the industry.
