Nigerians may likely start enjoying the dividends of the removal of subsidy on petrol as some fuel stations are already beginning to cut the pump price of the product.
Citing the need to lighten the burden on consumers, a fuel station in Calabar, Prosperous Oil and Gas Limited has reduced the price of Premium Motor Spirit from N145 per litre to N139.
This is coming barely one week after an outlet owned by Basol Petroleum Limited located in the Calabar-South axis of the Cross River State capital had also brought down the unit price of PMS for the same reason.
According to Punch, the Group Managing Director of Prosperous Oil and Gas Limited, Mr. Abiodun Isinkaye, said the company was in sympathy with consumers that suffered so much hardship during the period of extreme fuel scarcity.
As an independent petroleum outlet, Isinkaye noted, however, that the reduction in price also meant small profit for his company.
“This reduction in price of PMS to N139 per litre is starting with our Calabar headquarters. It will extend to other stations of ours across the country. Loyal customers will also get gifts when they buy fuel. It is meant to ease the burden of consumers,” he said.
Isinkaye also noted that following the removal of subsidy by the Federal Government, there had been steady supply of products to the Calabar depot.
“Subsidy removal is a welcome development. No nation can survive subsiding petroleum products. Unfortunately, most of the fuel subsidised by the government is not consumed by Nigerians and this is a big waste.
“In the past, you see hundreds of trucks loading from Calabar depot to be taken out of the country, but the situation has changed. The bulk of the product which was subsidised by government found their way out of the country. The field is now level for those who genuinely need to invest. Now I am coming down to N139, another can go below,” he said.
In reducing the cost of PMS to N139, Managing Director of Basol Petroleum Limited, Mr. Bassey Sunny-Abang, had noted that the removal of subsidy on PMS had brought about sanity in the depots.
He also said that the quantity of tankers loading the product from Calabar depot had dropped since the removal of subsidy.