FG justifies petrol price hike, blames market volatility for action

FG justifies petrol price hike, blames market volatility for action
By Ahmed Tahir Ajobe
The Federal Government has defended the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for the recent hike in the pump price of petrol.
It blamed the prevailing circumstances in the energy industry for the NNPCL’s action.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made the clarification in an interview with Daily Trust in Abuja.
The minister, however, said the federal government has no hand in the NNPCL’s action, explaining that government can no longer fix prices of petroleum products in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“The differential you’re seeing is a result of different factors. One of them is the crisis in the Middle East. There’s volatility in the market. Therefore, the prices of petroleum products are going up, consistent with what is happening with other operators in the industry globally. Secondly, NNPC cannot continue to absorb these losses for Nigeria because as a limited liability company, it would be operating at a loss,” he was quoted to have said.
He said the development would not be static, assuring that in the long run the prices would ultimately come down.
According to him, the federal government will continue to use the subsidy savings to make live bearable for Nigerians through massive investment in critical sectors of the economy.