The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that a “hostile” business environment” can no longer make its members sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at the regulated price of N165 per litre.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday, the chairman, Lagos Satellite Depot, Akin Akinrinade, maintained that the reality is “we can no longer dispense petrol at filling stations below N180 per litre.”
He said: “Our members can no longer sell at N165. In fact, there is no reasonable businessman in this business that can sell below N180 per litre. Our members shut down their stations not because we are striking.
“We are not on strike rather the business environment has been very hostile to us such that we can no longer do business under this condition.
“For you to load a litre of petrol, you will pay N162 per litre. You will have to add the cost of transportation which is between N6 to N8, depending on the distance within Lagos. If it is outside Lagos, it is much more than that.
“So, If you add N8 to N162, you already have N170 and this product is regulated by the government and the government wants us to sell at N165. We have not added the charges at the depots and the running cost at our stations.
“Also the cost of diesel amid the country’s epileptic electricity supply situation is affecting our members’ running costs. You know what diesel says now, and you know how epileptic power supply is, we run on generators using diesel at N800 per litre. There is no station in Lagos or anywhere that uses less than 50 litres per day.”
With the development, queues at many petrol stations across the country have started.
Many fuel stations have already adjusted their pump price to either N180 or N190 per litre.
On Monday and Tuesday, in Lagos, Ibadan, Osogbo and in many parts of the Southwest there was scarcity of the product.