Oil marketers want to stop paying port fees in dollars
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, have been urged by oil marketers to abide by the Federal Government’s directive to stop paying port fees in dollars for petroleum products imported into the nation.
Mammod Tukur, the second vice chairman of the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, said in a statement yesterday that NIMASA and NPA had not complied with the government’s order from a year ago.
Remember that the government ordered that ports fees be collected in naira after a meeting of the heads of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, NMDPRA, NNPC Limited, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, and DAPPMAN in November 2021.
However, the marketers disclosed that NIMASA and NPA had both kept collecting the fees in US dollars.
According to Tukur, the Vice President once presided over a meeting in which the Chief of Staff was also present and discussed how it was no longer acceptable for marketers to pay port fees to NPA and NIMASA in dollars because it was having an impact on the industry.
“It was ordered that these organizations will start billing advertisers in naira. That has not been put into practice. That is a really difficult task.
“Demand essentially controls the price of dollars. It goes without saying that the price will go up if there is no supply. Therefore, in this case, we are required to pay port fees in dollars each time a vessel needs to berth.
He emphasized that one of the factors contributing to the Naira’s continued depreciation against the dollar was the failure to abide by the director because foreign currency was in short supply.
Why are the NPA and NIMASA billing in dollars if these products are consumed locally and headed for local ports?Oil marketers want to stop paying port fees in
He remarked, “They should just follow a government regulation, and we can guarantee that this will also lower the price of petroleum goods.
The Chairman of DAPPMAN, Winifred Akpani, spoke about the impact of the foreign exchange crisis on petroleum marketers.
“For instance, to charter a vessel to transport 20,000 metric tonnes of PMS within Nigeria for ten days, freight charges are denominated in dollars, which comes to about N220 million at the official exchange rate of N440 and a whopping N440 million for petroleum marketers who must source forex from the parallel market at N880.
“This suggests an extra cost of N11 per gallon for this transaction due to the difference between the official and parallel foreign exchange markets. Again charged in dollars for the same transaction, Jetty fees total N15.4m at official exchange rates and N30.8m for petroleum marketers who purchase from the black market.
In a similar vein, Jetty berth costs N2.2m at the official foreign exchange rate and N4.4m at the black market rate. Then there are port dues (NPA and NIMASA), which are assessed in dollars and amount to N142.796 million for marketers who obtain foreign exchange on the black market and N71.51 million at the official exchange rate.
This, according to Akpani, has made DAPPMAN members’ ability to manage operational costs and procurement more challenging.
