Mozambique: CTA wants collective fuel purchases to cut costs

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Mozambique: CTA wants collective fuel purchases to cut costs

1:18 CAT | 27 May 2022

Image: Lusa

Collective purchase of fuel “would allow a saving” by carriers “of around 6.14 meticais [€0.08] per litre, and that benefit would be passed on to final consumers,” Agostinho Vuma, president of CTA, said at a press conference in Maputo.

According to the CTA, the solution involves “creating deposits at terminals” for cargo and passenger carriers to “buy fuel as a group from the distributor, benefiting from lower prices.

Agostinho Vuma stressed, however, that there was no intention of “discouraging the retail activity of petrol stations,” but it was a “temporary measure to minimise the impact of the price rises.

The Mozambican Federation of Road Transport Carriers Associations (Fematro) told Lusa on Tuesday that it would propose to the government a rise in travel prices to ensure the sustainability of the activity.

On Monday, Mozambique’s Energy Regulatory Authority (Arene) announced the readjustment of fuel prices in the country, increasing all oil products cushioned with a reduction in rates.

“An effort was made for adjustments not to be made based on real prices” with an increase “of around 13 meticais [0.19 euros],” said Paulo António da Graça, president of Arene.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on Wednesday that fuel prices in the country were among the lowest in Southern Africa and that it was impossible not to make adjustments.

If a graph is drawn, “the Mozambique bar is at the bottom of all of Southern Africa,” “just that we cannot continue” without adjustments to the retail prices, the head of state said on the sidelines of an official visit to Ghana.

Petrol rose from 77.39 meticals (€1.13) to 83.30 meticais (€1.22) per litre, diesel went from 70.97 meticais (€1.0l0) to 78.48 meticais (€1.15) per litre and domestic gas also went up, from 80.49 meticais (€1.18) to 85.53 (€1.25) per kilo, according to the new price list presented at a press conference by ARENE.

Light oil also increased from 50.16 meticais (€0.73) to 77.48 meticais (€1.13) per litre.

Source: Lusa