The Nigeria Governor Forum (NGF) committee on fuel subsidy has recommended a petrol price of between N408.5 per litre and N380 per litre.
It also called for the immediate removal of fuel subsidy.
Chairman of the committee and Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai said this while presenting its report during a virtual meeting of the forum on Wednesday.
El-Rufai said the current subsidy regime was unsustainable, and only smugglers and illegal marketers benefit from it. He also said Nigeria could not fully benefit from the recent production cut by Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which was meant to keep fuel prices high, because of subsidies.
“Between N70bn and N210bn is estimated to be spent every month to keep gasoline price at N162 per litre, this is below the cost price and the remittance to the federation account will shrink to less than N50bn per month or even zero if threats persist,” he said.
“We are already at zero. I understand for tomorrow, so this scenario has occurred.
“Why are we keeping the price at N162? We are keeping the price because the Federal Government and trade unions met and agreed to the suspension of some industrial action months back.
“Even though we all supported deregulation of petroleum products prices last year, this agreement was suspended by the Federal Government because of a threat of industrial action by unions. This is the root of the problem and now we are back to losing between N70bn to N210bn per month.”
“The committee recommends PMS pump price increment from the current N162per litre to N408.5 per litre (negotiations with organized labour unions). N380per litre (settlement with organized labour).”