Yemisi Izuora
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has welcomed the decision of the Federal Government to slash the fuel pump price from N145 to N125 per litre.
In a press statement in Lagos yesterday, the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of IPMAN, Barrister Akin Akinrinade, said the decision by the government was the right thing to do, in view of the sudden fall of over 50 per cent in the price of oil in the world market.
But Barrister Akinrinade wants the Federal government to compensate all oil marketers that loaded fuel between Monday and Wednesday this week because they would be losing minimum of N20 per liter on the fuel they have loaded, depending on the distance or destination.
According to Akinrinade, the difference between the old price of N145 and new price of N125 per liter for a marketer that loaded 33,000 litres of fuel, the shortage will be N660,000 and for a marketer who loaded 45,000 litres, the loss for that marketer will be N900,000 for that single transaction.
The new government price of fuel took effect throughout the country yesterday Thursday.
The IPMAN Chairman said if the marketers who loaded their trucks between Monday and Wednesday this week were not compensated, they might run out of business because of huge financial losses they have incurred.
The sudden fall in the price of oil in the world market was as a result of the Coronavirus ravaging the entire people of the world today.
The Federal Government predicated its 2020 budget on $57 per barrel of oil.