The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) says the new hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, is worrisome and unfair.

Mr Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, the Director-General of NECA, said this in a statement while reacting to the new hike in the pump price of PMS on Tuesday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL) had said that with effect from Sept. 3, the new pump price of PMS would be N897 per litre.

According to Oyerinde, the new pump price of petrol is not only worrisome but also unfair.

"We had expected that the government will leverage on the momentum created by the completion of the Dangote refinery and the planned commencement of operation of the Port-Harcourt refinery.

"This is in order to clear the obvious self-inflicted pain on Nigerians and progressively reduce the pump price of petrol. This seems not to be the case.

"This new pump price could be seen as making Nigerians to pay for the crass inefficiency in the NNPCL,"he said.

He said that rather than address the fundamentals that have made Nigeria a net importer of petrol, even when we have four refineries, government have continued to inflict pain on Nigerians.

According to him, the government is, nadvertently, contributing to the increase in cost of doing business.

"We advise that government should have a rethink and do all that is necessary to address the continuous impoverishment of Nigerians and incapacitation of organised businesses,"he said.