BREAKING: Federal Government Reduces Fuel Price

The federal government, on Monday night, have eventually shifted ground by agreeing to a reduction in the price of fuel (PMS) by N5.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting with the principal officers of organized labour, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who announced this said the reduction would be from N168 to N162.44 per litre with effect from December 14.

The meeting, which held at the banquet hall of the presidential villa started at 8:55pm Monday lasted till Tuesday morning at 1:27am.

Eko Hot Blog gathered that the product is presently sold at N168, following the decision of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company to increase the ex-depot price of petrol from N147.67 per litre to N155.17 per litre in November.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.

According to the labour minister, a technical committee, as approved by the federal government has been put in place to ensure price stability in the industry. He said the committee would report back to the larger house on January 25, and will appraise the market forces and other things that would ensure stability in the industry.

“Our discussion was fruitful and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which is the major importer and marketers of petroleum products, and customers have agreed that there will be a slide down of the pump price of PMS and that the price cut will get us about N5 per litre and that the price cut will take effect from next Monday, a week today,” Ngige told newsmen.

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The minister noted that the price reduction did not imply the suspension of deregulation by the federal government because it did not affect the price of crude oil but on areas where the NNPC as the main importer had agreed that it could cut cost like freight and demurrage costs.

He said that the agreed reduction of the price of PMS was a function of a joint committee of NNPC and labour representatives which devised means to cut costs.

The Labour minister also told journalists both parties have agreed to hold further discussions on January 25 to enable the special committee dealing with complaints to conclude their deliberations on electricity tariff.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, also confirmed the minister’s claims, saying that the agreement was reached by both sides.