eBusiness Weekly
HARARE – The decision by the government to allow firms to import their own fuel will reduce pressure on the Reserve Bank to allocate foreign currency for procurement since the mining sector consumes on average 25 percent of the commodity that the country imports, a cabinet Minister said on Thursday.
The government on Tuesday announced the decision to deregulate fuel procurement by allowing private firms to import on their own as part of measures to address shortages currently dogging the economy.
Previously, only registered fuel companies were allowed to bring in the commodity.
Energy and Power Development Minister, Joram Gumbo told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power Development that recommendations had also been made to allow those in the agriculture sector to be allowed to buy their own fuel.
“We have not allowed individuals to import because it will be very difficult to monitor leakages of that fuel,” Dr Gumbo said.
Ministry permanent secretary Engineer Gloria Magombo said imports by private firms would however be strictly done through registered oil companies.
“They do that through companies that are licensed and have the facilities to store the fuel,” she said.
Eng Magombo said the fact that companies were being allowed to import fuel for own use did not mean that the government would stop buying for the generality of the population.
“Following the decision to allow companies to import their own fuel, there seems to be a worry that the government will stop importing fuel for use in the economy. That is not the case,” she said.
The Ministry officials also played down concerns that the move to allow companies to import their own fuel might again lead to increase in the price of the commodity.
Dr Gumbo said Zimbabwe’s fuel consumption had largely gone down from the time the government increased the price of the commodity in mid-January.
While the country was consuming up to 4.3 million litres of diesel and 3.3 million litres of petrol per day before the increase, at the moment consumption was now around 3.2 million litres of diesel and 2 million litres of petrol per day.
“I do not rule out that that the price increase affected the fuel consumption by ordinary people,” he said.
“They might not be able to purchase as much as they would want to, like they did before the increase.”
In January this year, the government hiked the price of fuel from $1.24 and $1.31 per litre of diesel and petrol to $3.11 and $3.31 respectively. – New Ziana
