Maravi

Fuel queues continue

Fuel queues continue
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Lusaka, Christopher Miti in Chipata and George Zulu in Monze
Sunday, October 18, 2009 3:18:07 AM

FUEL shortages have worsened in the country threatening to halt the country's economic wheels as commotion and absolute disorder characterise most service stations with the government suspending 25 per cent import duty on finished petroleum products.

The current fuel crisis in the country, caused by the breakdown of the catalyst at Indeni Oil Refinery had been worsened by the failure by oil marketing companies (OMCs) to import the commodity due to the 25 per cent import duty imposed on them by the government.

Currently, the Ministry of Finance imposes a 25 per cent import on fuel imported by OMCs to persuade them to uplift finished petroleum products from Indeni Oil Refinery while importation through the Ministry of Energy was import duty free.

In an attempt to avert the crisis, the government last week announced the appointment of Dalbit Petroleum Limited of Kenya and Kuwait-based Independent Petroleum Group to import 50 million litres of diesel and 30 million litres of petrol on the Ministry of Energy which is import duty free while local OMCs were initially requested to pay the statutory 25 per cent import duty imposed on finished petroleum products.

According to a survey in most service stations in the morning yesterday, long queues in most key service stations were visible with some motorists forced to sleep in their vehicles in an effort to access the commodity which had eluded the country for over ten days today.

A check at Vuma, Engen, Oddy's and Caltex service stations revealed very long queues, some of which were carryovers from Friday.

Some motorists who came from Lusaka's surrounding towns such as Kafue, Chisamba and Mumbwa complained that the scarcity of fuel, especially petrol, had negatively impacted on the business and there was urgent need for the government to put in measures to arrest the situation.

"I operate taxi business in Kafue and I came here last night [Friday] around 19:00 hours and up to now I have not been sold petrol and looking at how long the queues are, I don't think I will make it even today," Isaac Phiri, an affected Kafue motorist said in an interview at Vuma filling station on Kafue Road.

At the said service station, there was drama as motorists were forced to register the registration numbers of the cars and distribution was restricted to 20 litres per motorist.

"We are going to the UNIP days; today we are queuing for fuel, next week it will be mealie-meal, and the other week it will be water. Zambia is finished," some motorists were heard complaining.

Another motorist Charity Banda complained about the lack of petrol, a problem she said subjected them to sleeping outside without access to food and sanitary services.

"We are forced to sleep here without food, not even access to our husbands. We can't take this," Banda said amidst ululations other motorists.

In Chipata, the shortage of petrol has prompted some residents to seek the commodity in the neighbouring Mchinji District in Malawi.

Some residents spoken to said it was sad that Zambia had remained without petrol for a long time.

"We buy petrol in Malawi, others buy from vendors who smuggle the commodity in Mchinji. So it's bad that the petrol shortage has not been solved despite several unfulfilled assurances that the shortage would be addressed," one of the motorists said.

Chipata District had been facing fuel shortage for the past one week.

A check at filling stations in Chipata yesterday revealed that all of them had run out of petrol.

A fuel attendant at BP service station said the station ran out of petrol on Friday.

"I don't know when this shortage will come to an end but I can tell that once we receive petrol people buy like anything else. We had petrol yesterday but it got finished because of the demand, so this time I don't know when we are going to have petrol because even our tankers have not yet started off," he said.

Caltex service station has had no petrol for close to one week while Total filling station which had petrol on Friday had also ran out of the commodity by yesterday.

Fuel vendors have pegged a 2.5 litre container between K25,000 and K30,000 while a five litre container is fetching between K50,000 and K60,000.

And in Monze, there was commotion at Kobil filling station on Friday when word went round among motorists that 23,000 litres of fuel destined for the town would be offloaded at Kobil filling station.

This led to an increase in the number of motorists at the service station prompting management to call for police officers to ensure order.

Armed police officers were seen keeping vigil at 17:00 hours and the fuel tanker arrived after 18:00 hours while motorists drawn from Choma, Sinazongwe, Namwala, Maamba and Gwembe districts waited patiently on the queue.

When the tanker carrying fuel arrived, the Great North Road was blocked, making it difficult for motorists to use the road.

Police officers had to intervene to control the flow of traffic.

Motorists expressed worry over the continued shortage of fuel in some parts of Southern Province.

The motorists said the situation had forced them to buy fuel at an exorbitant price from exploitative vendors on the Great North Road.

Kasauta Michelo, a driver, said most motorists had been buying fuel from vendors between K80,000 and K90,000 for diesel and petrol respectively for the last five days.

Michelo said vendors had taken advantage of the current fuel shortage to exploit motorists and farmers in some parts of the country especially Monze and other nearby districts.

"This is a sad situation, government should come out clean on this matter. They should accept that they have failed to resolve the fuel crisis the country is experiencing. They have failed to plan," Michelo said.

Douglas Himaimbo, a driver from Sinazongwe, said the government should seriously consider resolving the fuel crisis and put up measures to mitigate a recurrence.

Kobil Monze managing director Mohamud Muhammad said the consignment of fuel received would only last for three days because of the continued fuel shortage the country was experiencing.

"We shall continue to ration the sale of fuel to our clients and as you have seen we are only allowing 20 litres per individual, not more than that except those with accounts. Customers with accounts are not affected and most of them are government departments. We have also reserved some fuel for them," Muhammad said.

Efforts to get a comment from both energy minister Kenneth Konga and permanent secretary Peter Mumba proved futile at press time as their mobile phones went unanswered.

Konga had in the morning of yesterday refused to talk because he was in a meeting and asked to be called back around 14:00 hours.

But according to Reuters news agency, the government had suspended the 25 per cent duty on fuel imports to avert a fuel crisis after OMCs said they would delay diesel and petrol imports until the tax was scrapped.

Konga told Reuters that the government had decided to waive the duty during the period of the shutdown of Zambia's sole 24,000 barrels-per-day Indeni Oil Refinery.

"The import duty on fuel has been suspended for two weeks to allow OMCs to bring in the fuel at a lower price so that we don't experience shortages," Konga said.

Some OMCs said last week that it would have been expensive for them to source petrol and diesel from Mozambique and Tanzania if the government did not rescind the tax.

Last week, Oryx Oil Zambia managing director Webster Nonde said it was impossible for OMCs to import fuel at the current high fuel prices on the international market.

Nonde said although it was important for the government to protect indigenous industries like Indeni Oil Refinery, there was need to put in place mechanisms to deal with crises like the one experienced recently.

"With the 25 per cent import duty imposed by the government on finished fuel, it is not just going to work for OMCs to import because it's just prohibitive given the prevailing high prices of fuel on the international market," Nonde said. "If the OMCs imported to avert the shortage, it would have meant a higher pump price in the country."

And the government has hired Dalbit Petroleum Limited, a company embroiled in a failed controversial bid early this year to tender for the supply and delivery of diesel to Zambia after it was discovered the contract had serious weaknesses.

The other company hired, IPG of Kuwait, has a long-term contract for the supply of crude oil to Indeni Petroleum Refinery.

However, some industry sources have questioned the decision of the government, arguing that it was going to make economic sense to hire local OMCs with networks in the country to expedite the process of distribution.

Indeni Oil Refinery was closed for maintenance last Friday and is scheduled to reopen after 30 days.

Zambia consumes about two million litres of diesel and 700,000 litres of petrol daily.

Labels: FUEL

posted by MrK @ 2:18 AM