The organised Labour has called on the federal government to review the current template of the petroleum motor spirit (PMS) due to the fact that the current Import Pricing method used by the federal government to fix the price of petroleum products in the country is not sustainable.
Speaking in Abuja after a bipartite meeting between the federal government and Organised Labour, to review the reports of the Technical Committees on Electricity Tariff and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, said government must priotise the welfare of Nigerians in her policy thrust.
Comrade Wabba further appealed to government to guarantee the protection and insulation Nigerians from the vagaries of market forces.
According to him, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) must do everything possible to look at the template and ensure it serves Nigerians and not the market forces.
Wabba identified inherent interest in importation rather than refining as the reason why the refineries in the country are yet to be fixed.
“The reports were presented and we pointed out areas that we are not comfortable with and we were able to send our views across which will form bases of the decision.
“We have been using the import pricing method, which I think it’s only Nigeria amongst the OPEC countries that has been using that method that intends that hundred per cent of what we consume is imported. We sell our crude oil and import finished product.
“We have also looked at the inefficiency in the system, especially the metering, which has become a major challenge but fundamentally, we have said the entire privatization process is due for review. The condition for the precedent for the privatizations is that after five years, the entire process should be reviewed,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said the federal government and Labour had adopted for implementation, the report of the Technical Committee on Electricity Tariff.
The minister disclosed that the Technical Committee on Electricity Tariff would be transmited into a standing committee for the purpose of implementing the recommendations of the report.
He said, “We adopted the report of the Electricity Committee, made some adjustments and transformed that technical committee into an implementation committee. They are now the Standing Committee to implement all the recommendations they gave to us here.”
