November 09, (THEWILL) – The price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), otherwise known as cooking gas, may further go up as marketers stopped importation of the essential commodity following reintroduction of customs duty and Value Added Tax on imported LPG.
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), Bassey Essien, who disclosed the development, said if the halt in LPG imports should drag further, the supply of the commodity domestically could suffer a severe drop.
Alarmed by the development, in an open letter signed by the National President, Olatunbosun Oladapo, and Essien, NALPGAM urged the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, to urgently intervene in the skyrocketing price of cooking gas in Nigeria.
NALPGAM is the umbrella body of operators of LPG bottling plants licensed by the statutorily empowered government agencies to carry out the business of safe bottling of cooking gas.
The Association explained that due to the fears expressed by importers who had stopped importation of LPG into the country, cooking gas sourced from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company is now selling in the region of N11m per 20 metric tonnes truck.
Providing further explanation on this, NALPGAM said, “The NLNG supplies LPG to the terminals and these terminals sell to the marketers and at times in a day, the price can go up by about three times.
“But when there are issues like this, some unscrupulous people will want to capitalise on the situation, which they are doing, because right now, from what we’ve got, the price at which NLNG product gets to Lagos is about N7m, but you get it at N11m and above.”
On the price increase, the association stated that despite the decade of gas policy and measures by the government, the cost of cooking gas had continued to rise.
It said, “Despite the strategies employed by the government with its anticipated benefits, the reverse seems to be the case with the bulk of LPG consumed in the country largely imported.
“It has been observed that the above factors have seriously increased the price of gas to the extent that a 12.5kg gas which sold for N3,000.00 in January, 2021, now sells for between N10,000 to N10,200, depending on the area of the country.
“The daily galloping price of gas if not properly handled may derail the lofty ideals of the gas expansion plans of the government as well as the job opportunities the programmes were intended to create.”
It said the cost of 20MT of LPG as of January 2020 was N3.4m, but by December 2020, it had gone up to N5.4m; N5.6m in January, 2021, N6m in February, 2021 and N11m in October, 2021 without any signs of abatement.
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