FG inaugurates technical c’tee on PMS as new price regime takes off

The Federal Government has inaugurated what it described as a ‘Bipartite Plus’ Committee on technical framework on pricing of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol even as the new price regime for PMS announced last week by the government, officially took off on Monday, December 14,2020.

This was sequel to the outcome of a series of Bipartite meetings between the Federal Government and the Organized Labour represented by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Unions Congress (TUC) to fashion out a mechanism and framework to monitor and stabilise PMS pump price. After the meetings with Organized Labour the Federal Government had on December 8, reduced the pump price of PMS by N5 from N168 to N162.44 per litre with effect from Monday, December 14.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who inaugurated the committee on Monday, December 14 in Abuja, in the presence of Labour led by the Secretary General of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Emmanuel Ugboaja, said government has not fixed the price of petrol that took off from Monday December 14, stressing that “it was a price reduction gotten from the commercials like demurrage, trans-shipment and living storage”. He said further that the committee will “be expected to do more to entrench transparency in that area.”

According to the Minister, the Committee being inaugurated shall have the following underlisted Terms of Reference: To review cost of supply and incidental costs and arrive at the basis of determining Market Reflective Pump Price cap under the template of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) Act; To engage all relevant stakeholders to establish a price review framework and To carry out any other assessment that will facilitate the work of the Committee.

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The Minister said “The Technical Committee is expected to submit its report by Monday, 25th January 2021 in the first instance to our Main Committee just like the Electricity Tariff Technical Committee will do same day.”

The Committee membership is as follows; Onochie Azubuike Anyaoku-Chairman; Lawal Musa from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) – Secretary; Umar Ajiya also from the NNPC – Member; Festus Osifo from Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) – Member and Williams Akporehia from National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) – Member.

Others are; Saidu Abdullahi from Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) –Member; Ahmed Bobbi from Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) – Member; Ahmed Zakari – Special Assistant to the President on Infrastructure– Member; Najeem Yasin from Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) – Member and Nasirudeen Usman also from Nigeria Labour NLC – Member.

Other members include; Hyginus Chika Ouegbu from Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC); Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and C. C. Dike of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Ngige, who lauded the various organizations that contributed people to serve in the committee, and those who have been so nominated and who have accepted to devote their time to serve in the committee, said “it is expected that the Committee will work assiduously to come up with a viable framework for PMS price modulation.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, the chairman, Anyaoku Onochie, said the committee is to provide an evidence-based report to the leaders to enable them make informed decisions. “I am pleased to note that membership of the committee is quite broad and practically every stakeholder, every player in the sector is in the committee.”

He said further that the “committee would make the job of data gathering, data analysis very easy for us so that we can make the right recommendations that will, in a nutshell, give clarity on the true cost drivers for PMS, the value destroyers in the supply chain and then for the overarching body to make the necessary decision as to how the prices can be modulated in a way that it does not penalize the consumer for the inefficiencies in the supply chain.”