BY MATTEW ORJI—-The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers have frowned at over 15 per cent increase in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
This is coming on the heels of of the increase by Shell Nigeria Gas Limited of its domestic gas distribution capacity by 150 per cent over the last six months.
The association’s president, Ogieva-Okunbor said Nigeria remains one of the lowest consumers of LPG despite the enormous natural gas reserves in the country and urged the government to remove Value Added Tax on locally produced cooking gas.
Hr said that the price of 20 metric tonnes of LPG has increased from N4 million to N4.6 million within two weeks, adding that this has resulted to a hike in the price of 6kg and 12.5kg cyclinder
He added that about three weeks ago, we were in Abuja for the harmonisation of the new LPG policy so that it can hit the ground running. But three weeks after, this cabal started increasing the price of LPG.
Within two weeks, the price of LPG has increased by 15 per cent. What came into our minds is why is it now that the federal government is trying to make LPG available by creating a robust policy that these people are trying to kill the NLNG’s LPG programme and monopolise the market? NLNG ship will come and stay for three days without seeing any space to discharge. Another question is why is imported gas cheaper than locally produced gas? Who is behind it? Why is it that VAT is not paid on imported gas but is paid on NLNG product? You said that you want to encourage the use of cooking gas in Nigeria but the one produced in our backyard is more expensive than the imported gas,” Ogieva-Okunbor explained.
He however called on the government to develop effective policies to encourage investors to join the LPG sector and also stop groups that seek to monopolise the industry.
