A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has revealed some other major steps being taken by the government to cushion the impact of fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
OsunDailyNG reports that the price of petrol has shot up by over 400% since the President announced an end to subsidy payments.
The pump price of fuel was initially pegged at N537 in the previous months when the subsidy removal was implemented.
However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) again announced a new price of N617 per litre on Tuesday, July 18, a development that has generated a barrage of reactions on and off social media.
Reacting to the latest hardship suffered by Nigerians, the CSOs appealed to the citizens to be understanding, saying that prices are being determined by foreign exchange fluctuations induced by international market forces.
The CSOs explained that the cost of landing has increased due to FOREX instability.
In a statement signed by the lead Convener, Dr Basil Musa and the Co-Convener, Malam Haruna Maigida, the CSOs explained that the subsidy regime had previously been favourable to some neighbouring African countries until its removal by President Tinubu recently.
According to them, measures which are being put in place to mitigate the hardship occasioned by the increment in pump price will not just be palliative but fully deregulate the mainstream and downstream sector so as to break the monopoly of fuel importation and ensure that Nigeria’s local refineries are optimally working.
They expressed the hope that the increase would ensure continual importation of fuel by the independent marketers, and ensure availability of fuel at filling stations across the country and discourage smuggling.
“The cost of pump price in other African countries was still higher.
“This has been responsible for the smuggling of PMS to those countries, but the current increment to N617 per pump price would discourage smuggling.
“The removal of subsidy was reflected in the drastic reduction in the imaginary consumption of 60 million litres to 40 million per day, now,” Daily Trust quoted the CSOs.
Some of the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations include: the Oil and Gas Transparency and Advocacy Group, Civil Society Coalition for Economic Development (CED), Centre for Citizens Rights, Centre for Good Governance Advocacy and Action against Corruption in Nigeria, among others, OsunDailyNG understands.
