Mera maintains fuel, electricity prices
Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) has maintained pump prices of fuel to cushion the impact of the revised road freight rates which impacted on the landed cost of the product.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mera board chairperson Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe also said considering the 8.14 percent electricity tariff increase, which was deferred on February 6 2016—to cushion consumers against the effects of high electricity tariff increase and the need for Electricity Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to cover the revenue gap—the board resolved to maintain electricity tariff at K57.72 per kilowatt per hour.
On fuel, this means that prices will be maintained at K743.30, K722.80 and K580.40 per litre for petrol, diesel and paraffin respectively.
Mera said the combined effect of the movement on free on board (FoB) prices and exchange rate of the kwacha to the dollar resulted in changes in the landed cost of petrol, diesel and paraffin that were within the plus minus five percent trigger point.
This means that under the automatic fuel pricing mechanism, all the three products did not qualify for a change.
“The average FoB prices of petrol, diesel and paraffin increased when compared to the averages obtained in February 2016 used in determining the ruling pump prices.
“The FoB prices increased by 19.26 percent, 19.37 percent and 16.12 percent for petrol, diesel and paraffin respectively,” reads the statement.
Earlier, Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining said Malawi is expected to benefit from the tumbling global fuel price in 2016 as the situation will likely result into reduction in local pump prices. n
