By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
Worried by the persistent hike in fuel price,the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has warned that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, known as petrol may rise to about N2,000 per litre if urgent measures were not taken to cushion the impact of rising global crude prices and the depreciating naira.<\/p>\n
This is as the congress called on the Federal Government to immediately use excess crude revenue to subsidise crude supply to local refineries, particularly the Dangote Refinery, as a short-term intervention to reduce the pump price of petroleum products.<\/p>\n
The President of TUC, Festus Osifo at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, said Nigerians were already experiencing severe hardship as the cost of petrol continued to surge across the country.<\/p>\n
He noted that, the rising price of fuel, which he linked partly to global tensions involving Iran, Israel and the United States, has pushed transportation and production costs upward, worsening the economic burden on workers.<\/p>\n
According to him: \u201cToday, comrades, we are seeing that the cost of petrol is edging towards N2,000 per litre depending on the part of the country that you are. Nigerian workers are already passing through excruciating pain as we speak.”<\/p>\n
The TUC president said that the increase in petrol price was already triggering a ripple effect across the economy.<\/p>\n
He stated that: \u201cThe same way it is affecting transportation, it is also affecting manufacturing. The cost of diesel has also gone northward, meaning that the cost of production has increased. When production costs rise, the final price of goods on the shelves will also skyrocket”.<\/p>\n
The union leader warned that if the trend continues, the country\u2019s declining inflation rate could reverse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this continues unchecked, the inflation that we are currently celebrating as going downwards will reverse and start moving up again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Osifo further urged the Federal Government to deploy part of the excess revenue generated from higher-than-benchmarked crude oil prices to subsidise crude supplied to local refineries.<\/p>\n
He stated that the 2024 budget benchmarked crude oil at $64.85 per barrel, meaning any price above that level generates excess revenue shared by the three tiers of government.<\/p>\n
The TUC President said a portion of such excess funds should be channelled towards reducing feedstock costs for local refineries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf crude is selling for about $100 per barrel
\nand the budget benchmark is $64.85, the difference should be partly used to subsidise crude supplied to local refineries. If government takes about 60 per cent of that difference to support production, we will see an immediate reduction in fuel prices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To him, such an approach would be more transparent than the former fuel subsidy regime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you subsidise crude supply directly to refineries, it cannot be abused because you are subsidising production. It will immediately bring down the price of PMS, diesel and jet fuel, possibly within one or two weeks,\u201d Osifo noted. <\/p>\n
The TUC president further blamed the high cost of petroleum products on the continued depreciation of the naira.<\/p>\n
Osifo argued that the exchange rate was a major determinant of domestic fuel prices. \u201cIf our naira today was below N1,000 to a dollar, Nigerians would be buying petrol for less than N1,000 per litre. The more the naira devalues, the more our purchasing power erodes,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
He insisted that the naira should ideally trade between N800 and N900 per dollar to ease inflationary pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur naira does not have any business being more than N1,000 to the dollar. If it falls to around N900, we will see the impact immediately on petrol prices and the cost of goods and services,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
The labour leader further criticised the slow pace of Compressed Natural Gas infrastructure development, warning that the current plan to deploy CNG buses may not deliver immediate relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday the biggest challenge with CNG is infrastructure. If you are travelling from one city to another and your vehicle runs out of CNG, where will you refill? It is like driving an electric car without charging stations,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
He urged the government to accelerate investment in CNG refuelling stations nationwide.
\nRefineries functional before shutdown<\/p>\n
The TUC president also expressed concern over the country\u2019s worsening security situation, describing the continued killings of Nigerians as unacceptable. He said the government must prioritise security before pursuing other development goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is really appalling to see Nigerians being killed like chickens. This is one death too many. A country must first be secure before it can begin to talk about development, roads, hospitals and schools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Commending the efforts of the armed forces and other security agencies, Osifo urged the government to provide them with modern equipment and technology to combat insurgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of our security personnel are in forests chasing terrorists and leaving their families behind so that Nigerians can sleep. We must provide them with the right tools and technology to defeat these terrorists once and for all,\u201d Osifo said.<\/p>\n
On workers\u2019 welfare, the TUC president said labour unions were pushing for measures to cushion the hardship facing Nigerians, including possible wage adjustments.<\/p>\n
He stated that while the next national
\nminimum wage review is scheduled for 2027, discussions were ongoing on possible earlier interventions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything that must be done to cushion the hardship Nigerians are passing through is welcome. We are already factoring these economic realities into collective bargaining agreements in the private sector,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
END<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent Worried by the persistent hike in fuel price,the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has warned that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, known as petrol may rise to about N2,000 per litre if urgent measures were not taken to cushion the impact of rising global crude prices and the depreciating naira. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[434,458,4905],"class_list":["post-12593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-intervention","tag-pump","tag-reduce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12594,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions\/12594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}