EXCLUSIVE – Fuel Price Reduction: Many Filling Stations Yet To Sell At New Price

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News From The State Saturday, January 24th, 2015

FROM IGNATIUS OKPARA – Almost a week after the federal government announced the reduction of pump price of premium motor Spirit,(PMS), petrol, from N97 to N87 a liter, Members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria IPMAN have refused to comply with the new price.

Recall that Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, had recently announced the reduction of the fuel pump price from 97 to 87 with immediate effect.

In Enugu state, a litre of PMS in all IPMAN filling stations across the state is still between 105 to 110 naira per litre.

When African Examiner correspondent went round parts of the state to monitor the stations on Friday, it was observed that only very few major markers, such as Nigerian Petroleum Corporation, NNPC mega station, Mobil and Oando have complied with the new price.

At Coin oil filling stations in Nsukka, the product is still sold N97 a litre.

Some station Managers, who spoke to our correspondent under condition of anonymity, explained that they were yet to exhaust their old stock bought at a higher price.

“We will comply with the new price regime when we finish the old stock that we have. We will have a very serious loss if we should sell at N87.” a manager said.

“We are still selling at N100 and our customers are still patronising us because they know that we do not adjust our meter to short-change them.”

Miss Joy Ibekwe, the manager of another station, said they had not started selling at the new pump price because they bought the product at an old rate, which she did not disclose.

According to her, “we are ready to sell at the normal price, to revert to the new price will not be a problem for us, but it must be within the range at which we bought the product. I will even appreciate if the price will come back to N65 per litre,” she stated.

Similarly, our correspondent also gathered that many filling stations across the country are yet to comply with the new price regime claiming not to have exhausted their old stock even almost a week after Federal government slashed the fuel pump price from N97 to N87 per liter.