Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 9415 |
| Work Detail | The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has decried alleged call by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for an increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS). In a release signed by TUC National President Comrade Boboi Kaigama on Tuesday, the union said: “Our attention has been drawn to the recent call by the management of NNPC for an increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) from N145. “It is annoying that the call came even when the Federal Government is yet to fulfil its promises and agreement reached with organised labour during the protest against the last price hike in May, this year. “In case the management of the NNPC has forgotten, the economy is in crisis and life has become very difficult for the common man who now can hardly afford two square meals per day”. Kaigama went on: “The minimum wage could no longer purchase a bag of rice,” adding that businesses were shutting down, leading to millions of job losses. This has led to increase in crime and other vices. “If all the members of the NNPC team can offer as recipe to containing the scourge of economic downturn is to increase the price of petroleum products, then they are not fit to manage the sector and should throw in the towel. “If the country had other sources of Foreign Exchange (forex) or produced most of what it imports, the economy would not be what it is now,” Kaigama pointed out, asking: “What stops the government from building more refineries and diversifying the economy?” He said the Federal Government should maintain some stability in forex rates, taking into cognisance that Nigeria was an import-dependent economy. Kaigama said the implications of refining outside the country were enormous. “If you are refining outside, you must pay for cost of transportation, insurance and port charges, etc. We just cannot continue to toe the same line,” he said. The TUC boss said the Congress would resist any hike in the price of petrol if that’s what it would take to get the government into thinking out of the box. |
| Country | Nigeria , Western Africa |
| Industry | Oil & Gas |
| Entry Date | 15 Oct 2016 |
| Source | http://thenationonlineng.net/tuc-decries-call-fuel-price-hike/ |
