FG Changes Gear on Autogas, Charges N250,000 for Conversion
Vehicle owners wishing to convert from fuel to autogas will now have to pay the sum of N250,000, the federal government said Wednesday.
Government had initially said it was going to offset the cost of converting one million vehicles to run on gas free of charge.
It had also said this was a policy to cushion the effect of the deregulation in the downstream sector which had led to increase in fuel prices.
Both Minister of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva and the Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, had promised that the conversion which cost was put at N250,000 would carried out free of charge.
But Sylva’s Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation, Mr. Justice Derefaka, said a different thing during the launch, making it clear that it would not be free.
He said, “The owner of the car basically will decide to say I want to run on autogas or CNG or LNG and like the honourable minister had mentioned before, conversion has basic strands; you can partner with your bank and the bank will now agree with the conversion centre to convert your vehicle, not for free entirely.
“The installer will now put some form of mechanism that each time you buy the gas; a certain amount will be deducted to pay for the conversion kit. Some people will say it is too expensive but I don’t think it is because within a period of five to seven months, you’ve already paid off the cost.”
“The cost varies. So, in terms of cost implication, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle and of course, for a typical SUV cylinder, it is a bit higher but on the average, it is around N200,000 to N250,000 and this is for a four-cylinder vehicle but it becomes a little bit higher for a six-cylinder SUV vehicle.”
Government had initially said it was going to offset the cost of converting one million vehicles to run on gas free of charge.
It had also said this was a policy to cushion the effect of the deregulation in the downstream sector which had led to increase in fuel prices.
Both Minister of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva and the Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, had promised that the conversion which cost was put at N250,000 would carried out free of charge.
But Sylva’s Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation, Mr. Justice Derefaka, said a different thing during the launch, making it clear that it would not be free.
He said, “The owner of the car basically will decide to say I want to run on autogas or CNG or LNG and like the honourable minister had mentioned before, conversion has basic strands; you can partner with your bank and the bank will now agree with the conversion centre to convert your vehicle, not for free entirely.
“The installer will now put some form of mechanism that each time you buy the gas; a certain amount will be deducted to pay for the conversion kit. Some people will say it is too expensive but I don’t think it is because within a period of five to seven months, you’ve already paid off the cost.”
“The cost varies. So, in terms of cost implication, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle and of course, for a typical SUV cylinder, it is a bit higher but on the average, it is around N200,000 to N250,000 and this is for a four-cylinder vehicle but it becomes a little bit higher for a six-cylinder SUV vehicle.”
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