Grace Cofie
The importers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly known as cooking gas, have stopped importing the commodity as cost of the gas jumped by 240 per cent for 12.5kg, increasing between January and October.
The cost of cooking gas increased to the extent that a 12.5kg gas sold for N3,000 in January 2021, now sells for between N10,000 to N10,200, depending on area of the country while other quantities experienced the same fate.
This was stated on Monday, in an open letter to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, as the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (NALPGAM) urged the minister to intervene in the constantly increasing price of LPG in the country.
The letter was signed by the National President, NALPGAM, Olatunbosun Oladapo, and the Executive Secretary, Basset Essien.
Essien stated that due to the fears expressed by importers who had stopped importation of LPG into the country, cooking gas sourced from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company was now selling in the region of N11m per 20 metric tonnes truck. This was with a cumulative daily increase of N300,000 to N500,000 per 20 metric tonnes without the imposition of VAT and customs duties.
The Secretary further explained that, “The NLNG supplies LPG to the terminals and these terminals sell to the marketers and at times in a day, the price can go up by about three times and despite the decade of gas policy and measures by government, the cost of cooking gas had continued to rise.
It said, “The obvious devaluation of the local currency, inability to access foreign exchange by importers, the increasing international price against which the cost of domestic LPG is indexed as well as the anticipated re-imposition of VAT and customs duties with retrospective application have all contrived to push the price of LPG upward.”
“The daily galloping price of gas if not properly handled may derail the lofty ideals of the gas expansion plans of the government as well as the job opportunities the programmes were intended to create.”
However, officials at the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited as Sylvia had described LPG as a deregulated product and stated that government could not determine its price, but promised to meet with marketers on concerns about the persistent price hike.
