Another Fuel Scarcity Looms As Petrol Transporters Suspend Operation

• Another fuel scarcity looms as Petrol transporters gradually halt operations over low freight rates

Transporters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, on Thursday, said that the statewide scarcity of PMS was partly attributable to truck owners’ gradual suspension in operations.

They said many PMS transporters have ceased shipping the product, and that more will soon park their trucks if the government continues to refuse to raise the freight cost for transporting gasoline.

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The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners’ National President, Yusuf Othman, told journalists in Abuja that the Nigeria Downstream, Midstream Regulatory Authority regulated the payment of freight for petrol.

Othman said, “Worse still, these payments are received by transporters in arrears, usually three to five months after the products are delivered.

“In 2020, there was an approval by the defunct board of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to increase the freight rate by 26 percent for which the endorsement of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources was needed for implementation.

“However, the Minister of State could not endorse the approval due to the obvious implication of its implementation that would result into either an outright increase in the pump price of PMS or an increase in the subsidy on the product, neither of which the government was ready to do at the time.”

Othman added, “This situation generated a lot of tension in the downstream petroleum industry with a strong possibility of industrial action from both NARTO and PTD/NUPENG. To douse this tension, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC intervened.”

He stated that the resolutions reached had not been implemented and that transport owners would not continue in business when running at a loss.

“If the government refuses to comply with our demands, our people are not compelled to run their businesses at a loss,” Othman said.

He added, “The current PMS scarcity is partly caused by a lack of funds to run the trucks profitably.

“Many transporters have decided to park their trucks, and I am sure that many more will park theirs in due course if something drastic about increasing the freight rate is not promptly done.”

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