Complacency costs money. Good living is not given, it is fought for and won. Sometimes the fight for wellbeing is tainted with blood.
There has never been a better time to question government policy thrust than now when the value of your personal earnings has been drastically reduced by questionable monetary policy.
Fuel and diesel prices have plunged to a four-year low in many parts of the world following a sharp decline in crude oil price on the international market.
For instance, the price for United States regular fuel has fallen 11 weeks in a row to $2.55 per gallon as of December 15, down by $1.16 per gallon from its 2014 peak in late April.
It is said to be the lowest price since October 2009.
Petrol price fell in the United Kingdom to an average 122.9p a litre last month and has dropped closer to the 120p a litre mark since then.
Fuel pump price in Venezuela as of December 15 was $0.02 per litre; Syria, $0.05; Saudi Arabia, $0.16; Kuwait, $0.24; Iran, $0.26 per litre; Nigeria, N97.
Figures from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) as of December 15 showed that the landing cost of fuel per litre is N98.15; expected open market price, N100.66; ex-depot price, N81.51; regulated price of product, N97.
The government pays subsidy of N3.66 per litre.
Global crude prices have dropped by more than 40 per cent since July, from $115 per barrel (pb) to an average $65 pb in December.
On Wenesday, December 17, the price of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) basket of 12 crudes was $55.64 pb, compared with $55.91 December 16.
The EIA said the average U.S. household is expected to spend about $550 less on fuel in 2015, compared with 2014, as yearly motor fuel expenditures are on track to fall to their lowest level in 11 years.
Surprisingly, the pump price in Nigeria remains the same.
By February, 2015 when the impact of the devaluation of the naira, hike in lending rates, and increase in banks’ credit reserve requirements (CRR) on private sector deposits crystallise, Nigerians would have come face to face with hard times.
Hard times means that the value of the money you earn is less than before. If N300 fetched a loaf of bread in November 2014, now you will need N400 or more to buy it.
This, partly, is the implication of the devaluation of the naira and hike in interest rates by 100 basis points to 13 per cent from 12 per cent.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the decision was taken to halt depletion of external reserves, as it could not continue to defend crumbling naira.
With crude oil price crashing by over 40 per cent on the international market since June this year, global energy price has since dropped. In the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, and some countries in Africa, the cost of fuel and diesel has dropped significantly.
In the U.S., consumers are saving an average $30 on fuel per month. In Europe, the savings on energy is higher. Asda, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, just announced a fuel price cut for the 10th time since September. Its new pump price took effect from Saturday, December 20.
Andy Peake, Asda director said: “We know how important it is to pass savings back into motorists’ pockets as soon as oil prices fall, which is why this is our 10th price cut since September.”
In America and other parts of the world, citizens are enjoying lower prices of petrol. In America, motorists and other customers save about 30 per cent of spending on energy.
But in Nigeria, fuel price remains the same at best. In some places, where artificial scarcity has been created, the price is rising against global trend just as electricity bill keeps rising even as power supply has plummeted.
In spite of a sharp drop in power supply, there are speculations that electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) have concluded plans to raise tariff next year.
Even in the face of naira devaluation, at $58 per barrel price of Brent Crude on the international market, there ought to be a commensurate fall in fuel price in the country.
If oil importers and marketers still enjoy subsidy, the government has every reason to compel a significant drop in fuel price. Unfortunately, the government plans to withdraw whatever remains of subsidy.
Electricity billing fraud remains finance hole
Electricity billing fraud has remained a hole in the pockets of consumers, some of whom live on the monthly N18,000 national minimum wage.
Electricity consumers, particularly in Lagos, groan under widespread billing fraud that threatens to further reduce the living conditions of consumers who do not realise that if they shun power supply and starve DISCOs of fund it will compel a drastic change.
Shittu Adeniyi is one of many customers who recently raised the alarm. He detailed his frustration in a petition against Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).
He alleged in a letter dated October 17 how his functional electricity meter was labelled ‘integrity doubtful’ by officials of Iba Business Unit, Ojo, who coerced him to pay N70,644 to purchase prepaid meters.
An Ecobank receipt showed customer account number 2562128948 with payment made on July 1 for three units of single phase prepaid meters. He was told he would get the meters in 45 days.
Shittu is yet to get the prepaid meters six months after the payment, even when his original functional meters were cleared from integrity doubts by engineers from Marina, Lagos.
The letter read in part: “For how long will I be paying for what I did not consume, for God sake? You should always reckon how many hours of electricity supplied to me for use monthly, how many times in a month you supply electricity.
“Yet you keep billing me for what I did not use.”
Cephas Enyiaka, who runs a portable provisions store in front of his two bedroom apartment in Ipaye, Iba-Tedo, in the Ojo area of Lagos, also wrote a petition to the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
In his letter entitled “Save Us from EKEDC Electricity Billing Fraud”, Enyiaka complained that his bill overshot the cost of his monthly house rent, implying that if he pays house rent and electricity bill, he will be left with nothing to take care of his family.
From less than N3,000 monthly bill, he wrote, EKEDC increased his bill repeatedly over a period of time. It rose to over N9,000 in October this year.
These are a few of cases raising questions over the high cost of energy, which buttresses the fact that complacency costs cash. People must square up to money fight to get the right bargain for public utilities.
