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By Emmanuel Adeleke
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has said its members cannot continue to sell petrol at the regulated price due to a “hostile” business environment.
Through petrol subsidy, the government fixed the price of petrol for consumers below the international price.
But the chairman, Lagos satellite depot, Akin Akinrinade, while addressing newsmen on Monday, said its members can no longer dispense petrol at filling stations below N180 per litre.
“Our members can no longer sell at N165. In fact, there is no reasonable businessman in this business that can sell below N180 per litre.
“We are not on strike, rather the business environment has been very hostile to us such that we can no longer do business under this condition.
“For you to load a litre of petrol, you will pay N162 per litre. You will have to add the cost of transportation which is between N6 to N8, depending on the distance within Lagos. If it is outside Lagos, it is much more than that.
“So, If you add N8 to N162, you already have N170 and this product is regulated by the government and the government wants us to sell at N165. We have not added the charges at the depots and the running cost at our stations,” he said
He added that the cost of diesel, amid the country’s epileptic electricity supply situation, has also affected IPMAN members’ running costs.
“You know what diesel says now, and you know how epileptic power supply is, we run on generators using diesel at N800 per litre.
“There is no station in Lagos or anywhere that uses less than 50 litres per day,” he said
Queues for petrol resurfaced in Lagos on Monday, few days after scarcity surfaced in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.