Mozambique: Distributors demand fuel price hike tomorrow – Carta

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Mozambique: Distributors demand fuel price hike tomorrow – Carta

4:38 CAT | 14 Dec 2022

File photo: RM

Petrol stations operating in the country require the Government to publish the fuel price structure tomorrow, Thursday (15) as established by Decree 89/2019, of November 18.

The aforementioned Decree approving the Regulation on production, import, distribution, marketing, transport and mechanisms for setting the price of petroleum products determines, in article 75, paragraph 1, that the Government must, on every third Thursday of the month, review the fuel prices.

“The prices of any petroleum product must be revised monthly and must be updated and communicated to the duly licensed distributors on the third Thursday of each month, or, if this is a holiday, on the immediately following business day, whenever: a) the Cost Respective base shows, compared to the base cost in force on the calculation date, a variation greater than 3%; b) there is a change in the amount of applicable tax charges”, determines the Decree.

A note from the class, which “Carta” had access to, recalls that the third Thursday of December is tomorrow, so “the next publication of new prices must be on the 15th of December of the current year”.

They complain about the fact that the Government does not publish the price structure in accordance with the aforementioned Decree. For operators, this practice has been common since the fuel crisis took hold in the country, reflecting the rise in product prices internationally following the invasion of Ukraine perpetrated by Russia.

“These delays in publishing the price structure cause problems for distributors because they find themselves uncertain about what will happen to the price, running the risk of one-off losses in their margins, as they continue to subsidize fuel prices in the hope of being reimbursed by the Government, but such a solution is slow to appear”, lament the operators.

According to the note, the distributors are already upset with the growing debt that the Government accumulates with them, a fact that is jeopardizing the continuity of the activity of many of them and threatening the supply of fuel to the domestic market.

“As the festive season approaches, distributors cannot guarantee that there will be enough fuel to supply the market. There are moments of great uncertainty and tension within the operators and in the future of fuel supply to the country”, adds the document.

The distributors say they are still worried because, with the non-adjustment of the price combined with the increase in the Government’s debt to them, the distribution of fuels on New Year’s Eve will be uncertain.

Finally, the class demands that the Government publish a new price structure on the 15th of this month and that the same reflects the increase in prices in order to stop the growing debt receivable from the Government.

Source: Carta de Moçambique