Mozambican fuel situation improved, but still chaotic – NGO

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Mozambican fuel situation improved, but still chaotic – NGO

11:25 CAT | 13 Apr 2017

Lusa (File photo)

Mozambique’s Centre for Public Integrity said yesterday that the country’s fuel market was functioning better, especially in price updating, but warned that the situation is still chaotic.

“The price of liquid fuels was updated on March 22, 2017. The Prime Minister, Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, said in the Assembly of the Republic that the measure was taken to avoid fuel shortages and that it was based on the decision to comply with the legislation in force,” the CIP says.

A note published yesterday on the Centre’s website reads: “When the Prime Minister acknowledges this in the Assembly of the Republic, with a commendable courage but with lamentable impunity, and makes a commitment to comply with the law, what the CIP has been saying is confirmed: chaos in the sector of import and distribution of liquid fuels in Mozambique.”

The text, signed by Adriano Nuvunga, notes that the price update, praised by the International Monetary Fund among others, “reduced the burden of the policy of subsidising fuels” but estimates that there still are almost 5 meticals per litre still to come.

“The forecast is that the subsidies will end on April 19, so the sale price to the public will increase in the pumps, but in the next month’s review, May 17, there should, in principle, be a reduction of the price, judging by the behaviour of the metical and the international prices of fuels.”

The CIP promises to “keep pace with the dynamics in this sector,” but criticises the ending of fuel subsidies “without an assessment of its implementation having been made and the [respective] results, lessons learned and recommendations shared with society, which runs counter to the promise of President Nyusi – at the time of his inauguration – to govern on the basis of scientific knowledge”.

Source: Lusa