The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has justified restoring the Unified Petroleum Price Fund (UPPF) margin on fuel prices.

It explained that this was necessary to ensure that transportation of petroleum products to retail outlets in the country was not affected. 

Sources told Joy Business the fund used to finance freight costs for the various products has been seriously affected after the margin application was frozen from April to June this year.

The Authority further said if it had not taken action, the supply of petroleum products to the market could have been badly affected.

The restoration of the UPPF will now increase the margin on diesel and petrol to 29 pesewas each.

Due to this, petrol price which was expected to come down by almost 8%, has gone up.

Prices of petroleum products were expected to witness some mixed reviews at the pump stations from July 2nd, 2022.

The price of petrol was expected to go down by almost 8% per litre, whilst a kilogramme of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) should have gone down by over 7%.

The diesel price was expected to have increased by over 3% per litre.

However, the reinstatement of the UPPF made it impossible.