The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have been urged by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to provide the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) a preferential foreign exchange rate.The TUC said that since the NNPCL was given a unique FX rate of roughly ₦1000/$ rather than the official rate of ₦1,600/$, the state-run company’s cost of importing gasoline would skyrocket, and depending on the region, fuel prices would decrease to about ₦600 from their present pump price of over ₦900.
TUC President Festus Osifo said as much on Monday’s Politics Today show on Channels Television.Osifo, also the President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), said the real problem is not subsidy removal in May 2023 by President Bola Tinubu but the devaluation of the naira by the current administration.
“The ultimate elephant in the room is devaluation,” Osifo stated, explaining that petrol would be selling at around ₦350 if the naira was not devaluated simultaneously with the removal of petrol subsidy last year, declining from around ₦700/$1 to over ₦1,600/$1.
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The TUC boss said subsidy is still being shouldered on petrol by the NNPCL despite the fresh adjustment of petrol pump price from around ₦600 to over ₦900.
Osifo said, “If you give a special rate to NNPC, you don’t need to pay for subsidy anymore. The same special rate that was given to Dangote (Refinery) to sell, a special rate was given. “Before now, we have had our Customs giving special rates. So, that special rate should be given in that sector.
“With the sale of crude to Dangote in naira, and you decide that that crude you are selling to Dangote in naira, the exchange rate will be ₦1,000 to a dollar. If you do that, all marketers can go to Dangote and sell at a reduced rate compared to what is practicable today.
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“It is about the exchange rate and that is what we have propounded over time.”
The TUC boss warned that if the government does not take immediate decision, the effect of the fresh hike in petrol prices will reverberate across the length and breadth of Nigeria, with attendant job losses and companies folding up, as foretold by industry groups like the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA).
He said the organs of the TUC would meet to decide the way forward should the government fail to revert petrol prices to around ₦600.
