The Edo State Chairman of IPMAN, Alhaji Abdulhamid Baba Saliu has described the Subsidy removal by President Ahmed Tinubu as a rude shock on IPMAN members and Nigerians as a whole which has automatically change the cost of everything in the Country.
Reacting to allegations that Independent Marketers and Petrol Station owners immediately changed their fuel price shortly after the President pronouncement on subsidy removal, Alhaji Baba Saliu explained that members of IPMAN are private business owners who understand the intricacies in business , According to him, selling the product in their stock at the present rate will enable them stand the chance of buying PMS from the refineries.
He noted that with the announcement of Subsidy removal, the cost of PMS in refineries will definitely escalate and to be able to purchase the product, a Marketer must have the cash at hand to access the product.
Alhaji Abdulhamid Saliu further pointed out that IPMAN has been clamoring for deregulation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which allow private investors the opportunity to invest in PMS but did not expect the government to embark on that when the local refineries are not working yet.
“As a matter of fact, we have been expecting deregulation but not at the time we got it, Deregulation simply means opening the Market for everybody. As we all know, Nigeria is a crude oil Country but because there is a bottle neck and government is controlling the price of Petroleum, Investors can not come in but with the deregulation, opportunity has been given to Investors to invest in the sector”.
“Kerosene and Diesel have been deregulated, that is why you have all the modular refineries, but for PMS, Nigeria sells crude oil at the International Market price, transport it out of the Country to refine and then sell back to us because our refineries are not working”.
According to him, NNPC Retail outlets have been officially mandated to sell at N511 per liter while Independent Marketers that buy from NNPC and private refineries selling at N600 are not making profit in the business because after removing the cost of transporting the PMS product to their various stations, they will end up making no tangible profit.
“When a Marketer that has the capacity of buying 30,000 per litre at 9Million and some fractions goes to the Market now, he will get that product at 30million, and if he sells this old product at the old price, it means that he or she will be out of business.”
Speaking also on Federal Government policy of shutting down Independent Marketers who had no license or have not renewed their license, Alhaji Saliu said that to be qualify as a member of IPMAN, you must have a license , he stressed that what Government is referring to are those who need to renew their license .
He however called on Edo People and Nigeria in whole to be patient with President Ahmed Tinubu and also pray for him to know exactly what to do with the funds that will be recovered from subsidy removal as government plan to mitigate the effect already weighing the masses down.
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