By Onyebuchi Ezigbo
The federal government and the organised labour will reconvene on February 22 for the consideration of the reports of their technical committees on fuel price and electricity tariff.
One of the major recommendations of the committee is that the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) should collect their port charges in naira to reduce pressure on forex demand and petrol price.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed this on Monday night while briefing journalists after a bipartite meeting between the federal government and the organised labour at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa Abuja.
Ngige said the meeting received and adopted the report of the Technical Committee on Petrol Pricing Framework, while that of the Electricity Tariffs Committee was expected in a week’s time.
Speaking on the outcome of the discussion, Ngige said that the organised labour has requested for more time to enable them subject the report on petrol pricing to their organs for further investigation.
“It is a technical report; so, they needed further investigation of the report by their own technical research team. The Technical Committee on electricity tariff has not finished. We expect the report in a week’s time. So, cogently, we are reconvening on 22nd of this month to take both reports,” Ngige said.
The report of the Technical Committee on petrol Pricing was presented at the meeting by the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Onochie Anyaoku, a former Executive Director in charge of Refineries at the NNPC.
According to Anyaoku, the report is 100 per cent- owned by the membership of the technical committee, adding that they all endorsed it.
He recalled that the terms of reference, jointly agreed to by the bipartite parties include to review the cost of supply and incidental commercial costs of petrol and arrive at the basis of determining market-reflective pump price under the template of the PPPRA Act; to engage all relevant stakeholders to establish the price review framework and to carry out any other assignment that will facilitate the work of the committee.
