EDITORIAL: Ministry’s stance on fuel prices welcome
Friday, May 15, 2020 0:01
By EDITORIAL
A pump attendant fuels a car at a petrol station in Nairobi.
FILE PHOTO | NMG
The decision by the Petroleum ministry to reject a petition by oil marketers for exclusion of cheaper fuel in the review of prices for May is a step in the right direction, given the difficult times that Kenyans are living in.
Marketers were pushing for the energy regulator to base its review of retail fuel prices starting May 15 mainly on the March crude cost of $35.58 a barrel, saying they were unable to sell 40 percent of the expensive fuel they had ordered then due to Covid-19 restrictions.
If the marketers had their way, motorists, industrialists and transporters would have been denied the benefits of low global crude prices.
With the latest price review, however, consumers in Nairobi will pay Sh82.28 for a litre of super petrol from Sh92.87, representing a Sh10.59 drop while kerosene costs will increase by 3.19 percent to Sh79.79.
