Head of Pricing at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Abass Ibrahim Tasunti says the Authority does not determine the pricing of fuel in the country.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Tuesday, he said that the Authority only regulates the prices which have been determined.

“The NPA is not the manager of the country’s economy in terms of fiscal policy decisions. We act on what we’ve been directed by Parliament. Imposition of levies and taxes on petroleum product is done by government through Parliament so for us if Parliament has passed that the levy should reflect in a formula that is supposed to be used to set the price we have to implement that,” he stated.

His comment comes after the Institute of Energy Security (IES) disclosed that fuel prices are expected to go up by 25 pesewas per litre from February 1, if the suspended Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levies (PSRL) is reintroduced.

Mr. Ibrahim Tasunti explained that the movement of prices in petroleum products cannot be stopped in a deregulated market.

He added that “the only way pricing of petroleum products can be reduced is when it is subsidised.

“If you see the price of petroleum product stable for a longer period, it means that something is happening which means the product is being subsidized.  Since we deregulated in July 2015 you will notice that price of fuel changes every two weeks in response to changes in the world market.

“So the fact that the prices were moving does not mean that nothing was done. Like this typical scenario, the levy was removed from the formula for the month of November and December 2021 and January 2022. Consumers were not made to pay for this levy so the fact that prices move doesn’t mean that it didn’t work. So the consumers were spared from paying the 16 pesewas extra on petrol,” he said

He, however, mentioned that if government directs NPA to reduce the levy on petroleum products, they would gladly oblige.