Cooking gas consumers may face tough times as marketers under the auspices of Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers have alerted of plan to increase the price of the gas from next week.
President of the association Olatunbosun Oladapo, announcing this, cited rising international prices, high tax rates and prices of vessels, Forex scarcity, and naira devaluation as some of the reasons for the intended price review.
Local consumers of cooking gas have for some months now enjoyed low prices following a drop in international prices.
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The price of the commodity dropped from an average of N730 per kilogram in June to around N600/kg in July and increased to N750/kg in August due to the naira devaluation.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics on retail gas prices said the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas decreased by 6.71 per cent month-on-month from N4,360.69 recorded in May to N4,068.26 in June.
However, marketers said the low prices could no longer be sustained as international prices have gone up, the prices of vessels have gone up and taxes are high.
Olatunbosun described the imminent price increment as unfortunate, saying: “The situation is very unfortunate because prices are going higher. Nigerian consumers are passing through very difficult times because they can no longer afford gas,” he added.
According to him, consumers are now returning to firewood, charcoal, and sawdust for cooking.
“The government should come in and alleviate the suffering of the masses by providing palliatives, reducing taxes and levies.
“You can imagine that for every 1kg of gas priced at N700, tax would take way N3.50. How much is left in such a business?” he continued.
He urged the government to tax profit and not products because consumers were not buying gas anymore.
“Local taxes are worsening the problem,” he said, calling on marketers who had the opportunity to buy products locally to fix prices with “consumers’ sympathy” in mind.
