Zambia hikes fuel prices

ERB executive director, Sylvester Hibajene announced that the price of diesel had been increased by K953, petrol by K1,103 and kerosene by K641 per litre respectively.

“The upward adjustment had been necessitated by the high oil prices on the international market which has reached an all time high of US$147.27/bbl on the New York mercantile exchange last month,” said Hibajene.

“The [Zambian] Kwacha had registered depreciation against the US dollar trading at an exchange rate of K3,404 last month, in comparison to the June rate of K3,264,” he added.

Hibajene said the increases are in line with the cost plus model which takes into account the cost of importing feedstock on cargo basis, among other things.

He said the adjustment is applicable to the current cargo, which docked in Dar-es-Salaam which enabled Indeni Petroleum Refinery to resume operations after it had shut down on 9 July, 2008 due to lack of feedstock.

Despite the hiking, Times of Zambia reported of an erratic supply of diesel that has hit Ndola in the last week forcing filling stations to give priority to account orders.

The paper further quotes Energy Permanent Secretary, Peter Mumba who, on Friday said the diesel situation would normalise the following day as the commodity was adequate to satisfy the consumers.