Cooking Gas: Nigerians May Pay Up To N10,000 For 12.5kg — Marketers

The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, NALPGAM, has warned that Nigerians may pay up to N10,000 by December to refill a 12.5-kilogram cylinder of cooking gas.

NALPGAM’s Executive Secretary, Bassey Essien, in a press statement attributed the latest rise in the price of cooking gas to the Federal Government’s re-imposition of Value Added Tax, VAT, on imported LPG.

The government had in 2019 gazetted the removal of VAT on LPG as a product to increase its domestic utilisation.

However, Essien said that the reintroduction of the policy has further increased the price of cooking gas across the country.

He stated: “It is unfortunate that the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Federal Ministry of Finance have gone to resuscitate a product that has been exempted and gazetted from VAT.

“This was gazetted in 2019 and has encouraged domestic gas utilisation. Nigerians are already complaining about the prices of cooking gas across the country, and this would further worsen the situation”.

He cautioned that the initial objective of domestic availability will be defeated if cooking gas goes out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians due to the current increment in prices of the commodity.

He also noted that more than one million metric tonnes of gas were consumed by Nigerians in 2020, with about 60 per cent of the product imported by marketers.

“We import to augment the 350,000MT allocated to the domestic market by the Nigerian LNG Company Limited”, he added.

NALPGAM boss, insisted that charging VAT on LPG would return Nigerians to era of cooking with kerosene stoves and firewood with the attendant health implications.

According to him, the new prices are “based on the price the marketers buy the product from the depots and terminals.

Early in 2020, a 20 metric ton truck of LPG was sold for N3.4 million, but by December 2020, it had gone up to N5.4 million, and up again to N5.6 million in January 2021. As at today, the truck sells for N8 million.

“The average cost of a 12.5 kg cylinder of gas sells for about N6,000 and if the situation persists till Dec 2021, a 12.5kg cylinder of gas may sell for N10,000 or more.

“My association has made so many advocacies to draw the attention of the government to address the factors that are responsible for the price surge particularly in line with the declaration of the decade of gas, but we are yet to see any move made by government.

“Rather than do the needful, the government is re-imposing VAT on imported LPG, which has been on exemption and gazetted since 2018.

“So if importers are made to pay for the VAT element, the associated cost will be passed to consumers”, he added.

On his part, the National Chairman of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Branch of NUPENG, Mr Chika Umudu, attributed the price hike to the country’s high dependence on imported LPG.

“As the dollar is appreciating against the naira, the price of LPG is increasing,” he said.

He suggested that the Nigerian LNG Limited, which accounts for more than 40 per cent of the LPG supply volumes in the country, should be supplying the domestic market in accordance with the demand, rather than having a fixed quantity per annum.

“People in rural areas and semi-urban areas, who are even the major target of LPG expansion, are beginning to dump their cylinders. It is not a good development”.

Send Us A Press Statement Advertise With Us Contact Us

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG