Petrol Price: Marketers Seek Loans, DPR Enforces Compliance
Oil marketers on Thursday called for soft loans from the Federal Government following the abrupt impact of the recent reduction in the pump price of petrol on their businesses.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria had directed its members to ignore the new N123/litre petrol price on the grounds that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency failed to carry IPMAN along before announcing the price.
But the Department of Petroleum Resources told our correspondent that it would enforce the new price as it urged the PPPRA to sort things out with the marketers.
The National President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, said the Federal Government should come to the aid of marketers going by the sudden cut in petrol price.
He said members of PETROAN would comply with the new price order but stressed that marketers needed soft-loans to cushion the huge losses being incurred as a result of the petrol price slash.
Gillis-Harry, who spoke to our correspondent in Abuja on Thursday, said, “Our members recorded massive losses from 19th of March 2020 when the first reduction was announced by the Federal Government.
“With the further reduction in price by the Federal Government, our members will again lose a sizeable amount of money, which will impact negatively on their buying power.”
He added, “We appeal to the Federal Government, the PPPRA and other relevant stakeholders to come to our aid by urgently setting up an intervention fund to be midwifed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and disbursed to our members in form of soft loans.
“This will cushion the effect of the PMS price reduction on the businesses of our teeming members and guarantee the replenishing of capital.”
This came as the National President, IPMAN, Sanusi Fari, called on the PPPRA to carry independent marketers along when fixing petrol price, as he noted that the association would comply with the new price.
The spokesperson for DPR, Paul Osu, told our correspondent that it was part of DPR’s mandate to enforce the new price and urged marketers to sort things out with PPPRA in terms of pricing.
