Government uses Le.132.1 billion to keep fuel price low for one year

Politics

Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone cannot determine the price of petroleum products. Instead the sector combines determinants like the international Oil reference price (PLATTS), and the foreign exchange rate. However to ensure the high costs are not passed on to the poor consumers, government has since May 2020 to June 2021, subsidized the pump price by Le.132.11 billion or $13 million United States dollars.

The Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Rahman Swaray has said, Sierra Leone is part of a global refinery sector in such government cannot determine the prices of the petroleum product but explained, they are working towards ensuring the people are placed in the heart and centre of everything. He outlined efforts are ongoing in the area of addressing issues of storage and distribution of petroleum products nationwide according to him, Sierra Leone consumes in excess of 1.1 million litres of petroleum products per day but can only store 40 percent of what is used per day.

The Executive chairman of Petroleum Regulatory Agency Baluwa Koroma, described the sector as ‘complex’ and ‘volatile’ with absolutely no refinery, inadequate storage capacity, and one available operational petroleum jetty in the country. He said despite the significant regulatory changes in the sector in-country, there is no change in the taxation environment for petroleum products yet, fuel prices in the country remains relatively below regional average.

Koroma said, the lower pump prices in Sierra Leone for the past years has attracted abnormally higher sales volume which threatens the budgeted import volume by Oil Marketing Companies, leading to frequent replenishment and high cost of holding. He revealed that, decision to increase oil price has to be taken in such that, the people will be at the heart and centre of everything.

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