Members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria(IPMAN) have threatened that their filling stations would stop selling petrol should the Federal Government enforce price control.
Chinedu Ukadike, the National Publicity Secretary of the Association, issued the warning on Tuesday during an interview.
The IPMAN spokesman denied allegations of profiteering, saying many marketers are running into losses with the series of reductions carried out lately by the Dangote refinery.
Ukadike charged the Federal Government to investigate the root cause of the current high petrol prices and boost competition by making sure its refineries work.
He stressed that marketers would sell what they buy.
“Marketers will shut down if they try somehow to enforce price control. We are going to shut down our stations nationwide. You can’t be regulating a deregulated market. You can’t tell me how much to sell my product without trying to know how much I bought it.
“We, the independent marketers, are losing money. We bought petrol at a particular rate a few days ago; on our way to our filling stations, there was a reduction. We have been struggling with the price. We have been struggling against financial losses.
“We are also struggling against stagnation due to low patronage of our products. Because those marketers who are purchasing now are purchasing at a lower price, and they are selling cheaper.
“If you don’t bring down your price, you cannot see buyers. This is the beauty of deregulation. If you cannot compete, you will not survive in the market.
“And because most of us are trading on bank loans, the bank does not know when the price goes up or goes down. Their interest rate is fixed; their return on investment is fixed. So, you must pay them. This is the situation we find ourselves in.
“By the time more products come in, you will see that the prices will go down. What we, independent marketers, are asking for is not about regulation or trying to bring price control or trying to force marketers to sell below or trying to force Dangote to sell below its production cost. What we are asking is to open up the various channels, boost importation, and let local refineries start refining. This will push the competition to the peak. With this, prices will drastically go down,” he stated.
Ukadike said the Federal Government has to find out the remote cause of the high fuel prices before calling for price control.
“The primary cause of this is that there is no competition. If there should be competition, the refineries will be working. That is where the minister should put his energy to ensure that our local refineries or whatever partnership we have with the Chinese will work. It is not about going to filling stations to check who is selling at higher prices. Do you know how much I bought the fuel for? Can you have a regulated market in a deregulated economy? You can’t be blowing hot and cold at the same time. The PIA must be followed to the letter. If they try to enforce price control, we will shut down,” Ukadike said.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, had on Monday in Abuja warned that the government would not tolerate profiteering and other practices that exploit fuel consumers.
Lokpobiri said that, though the era of government-fixed petrol prices was over, deregulation did not mean regulators should abdicate their responsibility to protect consumers.
His remarks followed renewed public concerns over the failure of refiners and importers to lower the gantry prices of petroleum products even as crude prices dropped from $120 during the US-Iran war to $72 a barrel.
