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President Buhari Blames COVID-19 For Hike In Petrol, Electricity Tariff

President Muhammadu Buhari has explained why the pump price of petrol and electricity tariff were hiked.

The President said the increment in both petrol and electricity tariffs was due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Buhari who was represented by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo disclosed this at the ministerial performance review retreat, on Monday, in Abuja.

He said the pandemic led to a downturn of funds to finance the country’s budget.

He said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a severe downturn in the funds available to finance our budget and has severely hampered our capacity. One of the steps we took at the beginning of the crisis in March when oil prices collapsed at the height of the global lockdown was the deregulation of the price of Premium Motor Spirit such that the benefit of lower prices at that time was passed to consumers.

“This was welcomed by all and sundry. The effect of deregulation though is that PMS prices will change with changes in global oil prices. This means quite regrettably that as oil prices recover we would see some increases in PMS prices. This is what has happened now. When global prices rose, it meant that the price of petrol locally will also go up.”