The Buhari campaign organisation
says the People’s Democratic Party’s promise to crash petrol price to N90 is
laughable, as no supplier of the product will sell at that price.
On Friday, the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) said Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, will reduce the
cost of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, to N97 per
litre.
In a statement on Monday, Festus
Keyamo, spokesman of the Buhari campaign, said the landing cost of the product
is around N205 and it is impossible to sell at a lesser N97.
“At today’s international price
of gasoline, no supplier will ever contemplate any scheme that will deliver
products at such ridiculous price,” the statement read.
“Those in the sector reading this
must be having a good laugh at the opposition. A simple check at the
international prices will show that even at the world market where gasoline is
procured, it will cost not less than N158 to procure a litre of crude oil. When
you add the cost of refining, plus freight, finance and port charges (premium),
there is no magic that one would employ to supply the finished product at N145
a litre. Presently, the landing cost of the product in Nigeria hovers around
N205 per litre.”
He described the opposition’s
claim as an “opportunism of the highest order”.
Making a case for President
Muhammadu Buhari, Keyamo added that Nigerians are aware that higher crude oil
prices will translate to higher government revenues and a prudent
administration will convert the resources to the benefit of the common man.
“This is exactly what President
Muhammadu Buhari has done since he mounted the saddle in 2015. The President
has worked out a transparent system whereby the whole subsidy regime and scam
has been totally eliminated. There is no cash incentive or payment again to
middlemen,” the statement read.
He added that what was obtained
under the past government was the abuse of the subsidy regime.
“The system under the past
Government was that independent marketers and all sort of persons were allowed
to import petroleum products on their own, declare non-existent volumes of
these products and get paid for these non-existent volumes.
“In addition, government would
then pay them cash for the “loses” (subsidy) in selling at fixed market price.
“Under this old system, more than
N3trillion was lost. However, when these independent marketers could no longer
bring in products due to high prices of crude and make profit at the fixed
market price of N145 to a litre, President Buhari refused to further raise the
price of petroleum products beyond the N145 per litre.
“The President was also not
prepared to go back to the subsidy regime. Therefore, President Buhari stopped
the scam of overblown volumes and subsidy payments to middlemen.”
Mr. Keyamo so how is this government managing to sell petrol at N145 a liter if the landing cost is N145. I smell a rat. This means the government is still paying petrol subsidy.
ReplyDelete