THE Federal Government has said it is not responsible for the hike in the pump price of petrol.
On Wednesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) raised the pump price of fuel from N897 per litre to N1, 030 in Abuja; from N855 to N998 in Lagos; N1, 070 in North-East; N1,025 in other South-West states; N1,045 in South-East and N1,075 in South-South.
This had triggered reactions among Nigerians who asked President Bola Tinubu to work towards reversing the increment.
But in a chat with this newspaper, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the government should not be held responsible for the latest hike in petrol price.
The minister explained that the NNPCL made the decision in response to prevailing circumstances in the energy industry, emphasising that it did not act on any instruction from the federal government, as the government can no longer fix prices of petroleum products, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
He said with the subsidy regime ending since May 2023, the NNPCL had only been paying differential to keep the price within the range it had been, but the company said it could no longer absorb the losses.
“The differential you’re seeing is a result of different factors. One of them is the crisis in the Middle East. There’s volatility in the market. Therefore, the prices of petroleum products are going up, consistent with what is happening with other operators in the industry globally. Secondly, NNPC cannot continue to absorb these losses for Nigeria because as a limited liability company, it would be operating at a loss,” he said.
The minister urged Nigerians to continue to show understanding with the NNPCL and the government, assuring that in the long run the prices would ultimately come down.
He said the government would continue to invest the savings from removal of subsidy to improve other critical sectors like healthcare, education, infrastructure, and security.
He added that the initial investments of the government in CNG would also ameliorate the impact even as more operators invest.
