Kenyans face another fuel price shocker this week as MPs dilly-dally in tabling legislative changes to cushion consumers from price increases against a backdrop of excessive government taxes and soaring crude oil prices in the international market that hit a three-year high of $83 per barrel last week.
This comes as regional counterparts such as Tanzania reduced and abolished certain fuel taxes, and reviewed the methodology of taxing bulk fuel imports to reduce the price of petroleum and petroleum products to lower the cost of living and put the country on a strong path for industrial growth and investments.
Kenya’s energy regulator Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority will on October 14 announce new fuel prices for the period October 15 to November 14 with fears that the prices could remain at the elevated levels or rise.
On September 14, the price for the commodity rose to a historic high with the problem compounded by the government’s removal of a subsidy designed to protect consumers from high fuel prices.
The government removed monthly subsidies of Ksh7.1 ($0.06) per litre of super petrol, Ksh9.89 ($0.08) per litre of diesel and Ksh11.36 ($0.10) per litre of kerosene, pushing fuel prices to an all-time high.
Last week, the Parliamentary committee on Finance and Planning which had been tasked to review the necessary legislations to bring down the cost of fuel within 14 days asked for seven more days to complete the work arguing that it also needed to probe the demurrage costs on fuel vessels at the port of Mombasa in order to dismantle cartels of dealers preying on consumers.
