PETROL: Petroleum Products, Marketers, Can’t Fix Price - PPPRA

Abiodun OBA

Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), said it would not allow petroleum products, marketers, to fix the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol.

In a statement in Abuja, Abdulkadir Saidu, Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, stated that its role in the determination of the monthly price for PMS would be advisory, while its price would serve as a guide to marketers in the sale of the commodity.

“Suffice to say that in a deregulated market, the role of a Regulator in monitoring and regulating activities in the sector cannot be over-emphasized.”

Saidu said the ‘Market-Based Pricing Regime for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) Regulations, 2020,’ published June 4, 2020, does not confer on marketers the power to fix prices for the product as they deem fit, but should rather, rely on guiding prices that would be advised by the PPPRA according to market realities.

Abdulkadir in the statement declared that the PPPRA shall monitor market trends and advise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and oil marketing companies on the monthly market-based guiding price, which shall include the indicative retail price at which the product shall be sold across the country.

“It would be recalled that the removal of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) price cap and implementation of a market-based pricing regime was first announced by the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, in March 2020. This was followed by PPPRA’s publication announcing the Regulation on the market-based pricing regime, thus creating a legal framework for the policy.

“The Honourable Minister had earlier stated that the Federal Government will continue to monitor the price of petroleum products and advise on monthly guiding prices that guarantee reasonable returns to operators while ensuring consumers pay appropriate prices in line with market reality and are not overcharged.

“The Honourable Minister, in his statement, further stressed that the government’s role in a deregulated economy was to provide, through the operation of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, a pricing mechanism to create a market-driven price regime.

“For the avoidance of doubt, it is instructive to state that no private individual or group has the mandate to fix prices of petroleum products, however, the statutory regulatory body is saddled with the responsibility of advising guiding prices.”

Recall, that the agency not too long ago said the price would, henceforth, be determined by market forces. A declaration which was greeted with calls by Nigerians for its scrap as since it would be redundant in a fully deregulated downstream sector.