Members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), have said that it has become unrealistic for the pump price of petrol to remain at N165 per litre.
The chairman of the Lagos chapter of the union, Akin Akinrinade, stated this while reacting to the recent fuel scarcity being experienced in Lagos state. According to him, the situation across the state is a result of the operating environment which has become hostile to their businesses.
In an interview with Channels TV, Akinrinade said marketers have found it difficult to operate considering the dependence on diesel whose price has skyrocketed. He listed the high cost of buying petrol at the depots, the high cost of diesel for running their station, and the increased cost of freight as the major factors responsible. Akinrinade stressed that it was no longer feasible to sell the product at the recommended price of N165 to a litre, adding that the landing cost of petrol was between N175 to N178 naira to the litre.
“Members of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria IPMAN have 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 pay in N162 per litre.
You now 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 the government which is the regulator wants us to sell at N165; we have not even added the charges at the depot and the running cost at our stations.
You know what diesel says now, and you know how epileptic power supply is; we run on generator, using diesel at N800 per litre. There is no station in Lagos that uses less than 50 litres (of diesel) per day.
So, our members can no longer sell (petrol) at N165 per litre; in fact, there is no reasonable person in this business that can sell below N180 per litre.”
