A comparative analysis of the newly reviewed petrol prices in Nigeria after subsidy is removed with those of its West African neighbours shows the business of smuggling the country’s petrol is no longer viable as cost differentials are no longer attractive enough.

The Adamawa/Taraba Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said that the removal of fuel subsidy had led to a significant reduction in the smuggling of premium motor spirits also known as fuel.

In a statement, the Customs Area Controller in charge of the command, Salisu Abdullahi, stated this over the weekend while briefing journalists on the command’s activities in May.

He said that during the period under review, the command confiscated 14,980 litres of premium motor spirit packed in drums and jerry cans.

“The seized petrol is going to be auctioned instantly after this briefing. However, due to the inflammable nature of premium motor spirit, most of it had been disposed of in line with the standard operating procedure and the accrued proceeds remitted into the Federation Account. It is evident that the smuggling of PMS has reduced drastically owing to the removal of the subsidy and the product is available in all filling stations.”

Abdullahi added that during the period under review, the command recorded 16 seizures of different contraband.

“Other contraband seized included: 494×50kg bags of dry blended NPK fertiliser, three vehicles namely: Toyota Starlet and two Toyota Corollas, used for conveying foreign parboiled rice, 90x50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice and 960 pieces of foreign soaps. The total duty paid value of the seizures stands at NN22.9m,” the area controller said.

He explained that the NPK fertiliser was seized because of the restrictions placed on the movement of the product, especially in the Northeastern states.

“It might interest you to ask that now that we are in the farming season, fertiliser will be highly needed by the farmers to improve their farm yield. So, why the apprehension of the fertiliser? The NCS is one of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of implementing the Federal Government policy on the movement of fertiliser.

The apprehension of dry blended NPK fertiliser is predicated on the restriction of movement of the product placed by the National Fertiliser Quality (control) Act, 2019 Section 10, which restricts its movement, especially into the Northeastern states.”