No going back on deregulation of petrol price – FG

The Federal Government has said no going back on the deregulation of petrol price, a policy introducing a market reflective pricing regime for determining the fuel pump price.

The government said it would no longer fix the pump price of petrol, which will now be determined by various variables, including the global price of crude oil.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said on Monday at the inauguration of the 23-man Technical Committee on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) pricing framework, in Abuja, that the technical committee would work to establish a more transparent method of arriving at the petroleum product price.

“Make no mistake about it, the Federal Government has taken a back seat and is no longer involved in price-fixing of petrol. It did not fix the current price because it was got from the commercials and other market-related factors,” he said.

According to him, it is expected that the committee will work to come up with a viable framework for the PMS price modulation.

Ngige said the move was aimed at bringing relief to Nigerians and consumers by bringing the pump price to N162.44k per litre.

He said that all the stakeholders – petroleum retailers, independent marketers and the Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPMC) had approved the new price template.

The technical committee is expected to submit its report by January 25, 2021.