The President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Olatunbosun Oladapo, urged gas consumers to brace themselves for price hikes starting next week.
He cited the surge in international price levels, the weighty burden of taxation, the soaring costs associated with vessels, the scarcity of foreign exchange, and the depreciation of the national currency, the Naira as some of the reasons for the intended price review.
“It is starting next week because international prices have gone up. The prices of vessels have gone up and taxes are high, but consumers are not earning more.
“Their purchasing power has gone down. Everybody is crying. Consumers, middlemen, and retailers are feeling the impact because business is now on the low side,” he said.
Olatunbosun described the imminent price increment as unfortunate.
“The situation is very unfortunate because prices are going higher. Nigerian consumers are passing through very difficult times because they can no longer afford gas,” he added.
According to him, consumers are now returning to firewood, charcoal, and sawdust for cooking.
“The government should come in and alleviate the suffering of the masses by providing palliatives, reducing taxes and levies.
“You can imagine that for every 1kg of gas priced at N700, tax would take way N3.50. How much is left in such a business?” he continued.
He called on the government to tax profit and not products since consumers are not buying gas anymore.
“Local taxes are worsening the problem,” he said, calling on marketers who had the opportunity to buy products locally to fix prices with “consumers’ sympathy” in mind.
The price of LPG dropped from an average of N730 per kilogram in June to around N600/kg in July and increased to N750/kg in August due to the naira devaluation.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics on retail gas prices said the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas decreased by 6.71 per cent month-on-month from N4,360.69 recorded in May to N4,068.26 in June.
-Jesse Voyamba
