NARTO Demands Won’t Affect Petrol Prices – President

The demands by the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) won’t affect the pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.

NARTO President, Yusuf Othman, stated this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday.

Othman said, “I do not think it will affect the pump price of petrol. It’s not likely to affect the pump price because what we want them (marketers) to do is to look within their margins and make some sacrifices.

“It’s very tough but if it is going to affect the pump price, by now, you would have seen the price changes. “

“It’s practically impossible for us to operate as we are now because there has to be a shift. And that shift is for the marketers to look within at what they can do,” he added.

Othman said the rate payable was since time of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari. “Look at the market dynamics now, we buy tires then N75,000, now, it is over N200,000. The rate payable has since static because the margin and the pump price are more or less regulated in a deregulated market,” he added.

NARTO had lamented high cost of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) also known as diesel which is used to fuel their trucks for the movement of petroleum products across Nigeria.

Like Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol which now sells at over N600 per litre, the price of diesel has skyrocketed of late, no thanks to the forex crisis in the country. At the moment, diesel sells above N1,250 per litre in Nigeria.

The association had stopped lifting of petroleum products on Monday amid harsh economic realities.

The tanker drivers subsequently resumed petroleum loading activities after a meeting with oil marketers and government officials in Abuja on Tuesday.

On the outcome of the meeting, the NARTO boss said the marketers listened to the challenges of tanker drivers and the government has intervened, even though it is not a government matter.