The cost of cooking gas has become the latest inflation news to hit the spotlight, after the rise of the Consumer Price Index to 16.82 per cent in April from 15.92 per cent in March.
AMBuisness gathered that a 12.5kg cylinder of household cooking gas in the country which went for N7,000 in September 2021, increased to N9,400 on May 31, 2022. This is the highest it has been since November 2018.
According to a survey conducted by Nairametrics on Lagos residents, consumers are lamenting over a progressive hike in the price of cooking gas across the country, describing the situation as frustrating and unbearable.
They believe that this would have a likely impact on food bought by vendors as that too is likely to skyrocket.
Notably, citizens are also calling out the government for what appears to be their neglect of the situation.
“The unfortunate thing is that the government does not care about its citizens because how do you explain a situation where it is so difficult to survive and our leaders are busy buying N100 million presidential form to contest in 2023 elections. Nobody cares whether we survive or not, as long as they are fine,” a resident of Cele-Egbe, Ikotun, Lagos, Funmi Omole, said.
They added that they may resolve to use charcoal for cooking.
In July 2021, the National Chairman of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Chika Umudu, explained that the price hike was due to the country’s high dependence on the importation of LPG.
Also, the Federal Government’s reintroduction of a 7.5% Value Added Tax on imported LPG which was protested by oil marketers last year, under the aegis of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, could be a cause.
The incessant hike in the price of commodities across the nation has led to a dwindling purchasing power of citizens.
