The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Review of Pump Price of Petrol, says it is working assiduously to ensure that incidental charges on petroleum products are removed.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Raphael Igbokwe, said this in Lagos on Friday, after a facility tour of the Northwest zone, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and NIPCO Plc.
Igbokwe stated that the removal of the charges is with a view to making petroleum products affordable for Nigerians.
“This is a general challenge every operator in the system is facing.
“With these incidental charges, increase in fees, levies from the Federal Ministry of Environment, from the Lagos State Water Corporation, from the DPR, from PPRA, now increasing their renewal licence, their application fees; this is eating in into the operational costs of these outfits.
“It has a multiplier effect because this cost is finally transferred into the final cost or price of the product and this is where we come in.
“We are looking at all those causative factors that lead into increase in pricing by marketers and oil and gas companies.
“So in any way, we can mitigate them, in any way we can reduce them, in any way we can eliminate them.
“Once these incidental charges or challenges are removed, it will also have a positive effect on the final price of petroleum, making it affordable to the common Nigerian. That is our concern.’’
He said that the committee’s observation during the facility tour would form part of the parameters setting a benchmark for the pump price of the products.
“What we observe here is going to be one of the bench marks we are going to use in our final decisions in assessing the operations of stakeholders in the system on what value they are adding.
“Our mandate is to look at the cost structure of petrol and to review the pump price of petrol; the price template.
“At every cost element, we will look at the operators in those areas and see how were they adding value to it.
“So as it concerns NIPCO PLC, with the two areas we have concentrated on, we are impressed with their performance and they are adding g value to it.
“This is what we are going to do among sampled companies to see those who are really adding value and those who are not.
“Most importantly, we would encourage them to continue like we observed, standing by government regulation in the management and distribution of petroleum products.’’
(NAN)