Nigeria’s oil bill proposes free market pricing for gasoline
Nigeria’s latest proposed oil bill makes a provision for “unrestricted free-market pricing” of petroleum products, permanently ending decades of government-subsidized gasoline if the bill becomes law.
The legislation, which is currently before lawmakers, sets up a regulator to “provide pricing and tariff frameworks for natural gas in midstream and downstream gas operations and petroleum products based on the fair market value,” according to a copy of the documents seen by Bloomberg.
Nigeria in May put an end to costly gasoline subsidies which the government said had gulped an average of 744 billion naira ($1.93 billion) a year since 2006. Labor unions on Monday suspended a planned strike action to protest the decision.