A cut in the price of diesel will lead to a reduction in the cost of goods and services in the country, the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association (NOGASA) said yesterday.

The association claimed that a depot owner for instance spends as high as N20 million on diesel in one week.

It said an emergency dollar intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was needed by its members to boost their capacity to import diesel, known as Automotive Gas Oil (AGO).

NOGASA President, Bennet Korie, in a  statement at the end of the  Second Annual National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, also linked the lingering petrol scarcity in the country to the high cost of diesel.

To overcome the challenge, Korie said the association was asking for “emergency dollar intervention from the CBN for all depots owners for a period of five months.

According to him,  the intervention will result to  a reduction in the price of diesel.

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“What we are asking is a special emergency intervention for dollar, the CBN should provide the dollar for the importers at the official rate, I give you my word the diesel will crash,” he said.

Korie disclosed that the association has already sent a formal request for the apex bank’s intervention, stating that owing to the soaring cost of operation,  depot owners would always succumb to the allure of higher returns.

He informed that most depot owners and marketers with expansive operational bases, spend on average, about N20 million on diesel weekly.

Korie said as an aftermath of this development, some banks and manufacturing companies have reduced their production hours so as to reduce their operational cost.

He said despite the recent Federal Government’s approval to increase the bridging freight rate by N10 per kilometre, the fuel crisis might persist unless the diesel issue was addressed.

The NOGASA boss said: “If you bring the fuel to your filling station, no matter what you increase the bridging cost to, the running cost is the problem, this is why I said the only way out is to solve the problem of diesel.”

He urged the government to encourage the establishment of modular and private refineries such as the Dangote Refinery in Lagos and Waltersmith Refinery Imo State.

Korie spoke of plans by the association to visit President Muhammadu Buhari to lay bare the issues bothering its members, especially fuel and energy cost.

The NOGASA chief said the body has appealed to the National Assembly to review the policy of taxation (Value Added Tax (VAT) as it affects petroleum products supply and distribution chain, adding that the National Assembly should enact a bill for the establishment of an energy bank for easy transaction in petroleum products in the oil and gas sector.

Korie said it was expedient for the Federal Government to fix the four national refineries with a view to reducing the country’s dependency on imported refined products, so as to ease the high costs.

He appealed to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to exempt NOGASA members from multiple taxations, and ensure tax refunds for them where necessary.

He said: “The association appealed to FIRS to use its discretion to apply relief on petrol products; the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority should apply itself as the umbrella body of oil and gas association in Nigeria, by using its authority to collaborate with NOGASA in licensing petroleum products in Nigeria.”