No plans to increase petrol price increase in July – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said the official price of petrol will remain N162 in July.

It stated this as the crude oil price hit $74.72 per barrel at the international market early Tuesday.

The NNPC said talks were still ongoing with the organised labour on the appropriate price of petrol.

Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, said until the conclusion of engagements with labour, Nigerians would continue to buy petrol at N162 per litre.

He spoke on Channels TV’s Sun Rise programme on Tuesday, adding that although the pump price of petrol should be N256 per litre based on the current crude oil price, the Federal Government had decided to continue paying the differential until an appropriate price is agreed upon by the government and labour.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari had told the corporation to do everything legally possible not to make petrol price out of reach of Nigerians, especially at this moment.

“What this means however is that we are taking out cash that could have been used for other things to pay under-recovery,” he said.

He said it was not true that the corporation was now remitting zero naira to the federation account because of the under-recovery payment.