The Federal Government disbursed about N173.2bn for the equalisation of over 11.6 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, between 2019 and 2022, data obtained from the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources on Tuesday showed.
PMS price equalisation is done by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, in which the NMDPRA ensures price uniformity of petroleum products via the reimbursement of marketers for trucking products to filling stations anywhere in Nigeria.
A document obtained by our correspondent from the FMPR in Abuja, on the scorecard of the ministry since 2019, showed that over N173.2bn had been disbursed to equalise the cost of petrol nationwide.
But despite the hundreds of billions spent on PMS price equalisation, the cost of the commodity has hardly been equal in various states, outside Lagos and Abuja. Currently, for instance, the price of petrol at mega stations owned by major marketers in Abuja and Lagos hovers between N179 and N180/litre, but the cost of the commodity in many independent retail outlets in other states is usually higher than N250/litre.
The price disparity across states has lingered for years, as one hardly gets the commodity at the same cost in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Source: Punch
