Marketers lament over non-availability of product at new price

ben adhoc

February 3, 2016 11:32 AM

There is no way we can sell this product even if they make it available; one is that the price we will buy it will be expensive to sell at the official price.

New Kerosene pump price: Marketers lament over non availability of product

Marketers of oil products in the country said non availability of the Household Kerosene (HHK) might affect the implementation of the new pump price.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency in January increased the HHK pump price from N50 to N83.

Some of the filling stations visited by a correspondent of the the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja had no products for couple of months.

At NNPC Mega Station on Kubway Express Road, HHK was not available but Premium Motor Spirit was dispensed at the official price to customers.

One of the members of staff who preferred anonymity said that the station in the last three months had not sold HHK.

"Our major focus here is selling PMS; we have not sold kerosene since November last year.

"But we always sell at the approved price; the thing is that it is not always available.

Also, at NNPC station in Gwarinpa and Central Business Distric, NAN reported that the product was also not available.

Mr Johnson Ibe, a worker at the Central Business District, said that the station was yet to sell any product because of the repairs from the fire that gutted the station.

"We usually sell kerosene but you know that fire gutted this station few weeks ago; we are still undergoing repairs.

"By the time we finish the repairs, we will sell to our customers at the approved price as usual,’’ he said.

At MRS Mararaba station, NAN reported that at the notice board, the price was still registered as N50.

The supervisor of the station, who identified himself as Joseph, said that it no longer sold kerosene because the station would incur loss.

"There is no way we can sell this product even if they make it available; one is that the price we will buy it will be expensive to sell at the official price.

"Even at N83, it has not covered the cost price,’’ he said.

Joseph said that if government wanted the marketers to be part of the business, it should not restrict the price of the product.

A manager of Total Filling Station Mararba, near Abuja, who also preferred anonymity, said the company had not sold kerosene in the last two years.

According to him, if the product will be made available, the company will sell at the approved price.

"Right now, I think many of us have no licence to import the product, so, since it is not available, there is nothing much to say for now,’’ he said.

At AYM Shafa filling station Mararaba, customers were buying Kerosene at N120 per litre.

Mrs Elizabeth Udeme, a trader, said "I am happy that the price will come down, I hope that this people reduce the price because if you ask, I will say that the new price had nothing to do with any common man on the street.

"I have never bought Kerosene N50 when that was the official price; now that it is N83, I hope it will not increase the price.

"I have been buying at N120; I am used to it; they should not make it worse,’’ she said.

NAN recalled that the President of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo, had called on the Federal Government to issue more licences to marketers to ensure availability of the product.

Efforts to get NNPC spokesperson, Mr Ohi Alegbe, to comment on the non availability of the product at many NNPC stations in FCT proved abortive.

There was no response when a NAN correspondent called him on phone.

ben adhoc