Marketers have revealed that the price of 20 metric tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly known as cooking gas, has increased by 15 per cent to N4.6m.
The President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, NALPGAM, Mr. Nosa Ogieva-Okunbo, attributed the increase in the price of the LPG to the activities of a group of players that “wants to monopolise the industry and maximise profits.”
Our correspondent gathered on Wednesday that the price of a 12.5kg cylinder ranged from N3,000 to N3,800.
Ogieva-Okunbo said at a press briefing on Wednesday in Lagos that the association’s efforts to bring the LPG issue to the front burner in the country were being scuttled.
He said NALPGAM had been intensifying efforts to create more awareness on the use of the LPG, which he described as having an enormous potential to improve the economy of the country.
He noted that a forum was held in Abuja about three weeks ago where the new policy on the LPG was to be fully harmonised.
Ogieva-Okunbo said, “Three weeks after, this group started increasing the price of the LPG. Now, the price of the LPG has increased by 15 per cent. As of today, 20 metric tonnes of gas is selling for N4.6m as against about N4m three weeks ago.
“Why is it now that the Federal Government is trying to make the LPG available by creating a very good and robust policy that these people are trying to kill the NLNG programme and to ensure that they monopolise the market? The NLNG ship will come and will be there for three weeks without space for it to discharge.”
The NALPGAM president decried the Value Added Tax on the LPG being supplied by the Nigeria LNG.
He said, “Why is it that there is no VAT on imported LPG but there is VAT on the ones from the NLNG? You said you wanted to deepen the consumption of the commodity in Nigeria yet what is locally produced is far more expensive than the imported product.
“We earnestly request that the Federal Government beam its searchlight on the LPG industry. It is our dream as marketers that the LPG becomes the cooking fuel of choice in the country. It is one of the cleanest fuels for cooking and automobiles.”
According to Ogieva-Okunbo, it not good for the economy that the country is one of the biggest producers of gas, yet its LPG consumption is one of the lowest.
He said, “We are calling on the Federal Government to please look into this issue of VAT; it is affecting marketers and the business generally. The price of the product fluctuates a lot, and it is not the marketers that are doing this but this group of people that wants to be the only players in the industry and maximise their profits.
“The NLNG is doing its best to satisfy the market: if not for it, we won’t be where we are today. I think the LPG would have been selling for N10,000 per 12.5kg.”
