PPPRA threatens sanction on petrol stations over non-display of prices

PPPRA threatens sanction on petrol stations over non-display of prices

.Collaborates with DPR

By Joel thankGod (Abuja)

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has said that marketers of petroleum products in Nigeria failing to display prices of products in their retail outlets at all times must face sanctions.

The General Manager, Corporate Services of PPPRA, Apollo Kimchi gave this warning while leading a monitoring team to some petrol stations in Abuja.

He said, “This directive is important to prevent sharp practice by oil marketers retailing petroleum products in the country.  The monitoring exercise was carried out for the Agency to measure market response to supply, in order to effect policies that will improve supply efficiency in the system.

“The exercise gave us ample opportunity to ascertain first-hand the activities at the end of the value chain in the downstream sub-sector.  The exercise shows that price competition among oil marketers is intensifying with some selling at N143 per litre and others N145 ”.

The PPPRA Spokesman said, “Our focus is to ensure that competition at retail outlets does not lead to under-dispensing, a situation where oil marketers will hide under the guise of low price to under-dispense products for unsuspecting users.”

He explained, “Information we gathered during the exercise authenticates the findings made public few weeks ago that  penetration of Liquefied Natural Gas, LPG, is becoming very popular among Nigerians, especially for domestic purpose.

“We also discovered that such wide penetration led to decrease in the demand of Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK for domestic use”.

He emphasised,  “Monitoring is a serious exercise because PPPRA is collaborating with the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, to ensure that erring retail outlets are sanctioned appropriately”.