Price Of Super Petrol And Diesel Retained For The Next Month

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has kept fuel prices for the next month ending March 14 unchanged.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the regulator said the cost of a liter of petrol in Nairobi will continue retailing at 177.3 shillings, diesel 162, and kerosene 145.94 shillings respectively.

Epra said it has cross-subsidized the price of diesel with that of super petrol. Cross-subsidization is when a marketer charges higher prices to a group of consumers to subsidize another group. In this case, petrol consumers –who are mostly private motorists –will pay more to cushion diesel consumers.

“The Government will utilize the Petroleum Development Levy to compensate oil marketing companies for the difference in cost,” said EPRA.

The fuel cost has remained constant despite a 0.12 percent drop in the landing cost of imported petrol, 4.76 percent for diesel, and 5.1 percent for kerosene in December.

This is the fourth time in a row the regulator has kept the fuel prices constant from the November review which saw a liter of super petrol drop by 1 shilling. The drop was attributed to a drop in the landed cost of petrol, diesel, and Kerosene.

The average landed cost of imported super petrol decreased by 5.60 percent from 88,520.59 shillings per cubic meter in September to 83,560.89 shillings in October. At the same time, a cubic meter of diesel decreased by 2.33 percent from 107,727.23 shillings in September to 105,212.06 shillings in October while Kerosene decreased by 9.08 percent from 107,576.20 shillings to 97,812.71 shillings during the period under review.

Despite the marginal fall, EPRA kept the price of fuel historically high something that has highly been condemned by Kenyans who are still grappling with the high cost of basic commodities.

The current prices remain high and are in the context of a rising cost of living in the country which hit a 64-month high in October when inflation hit 9.6 percent, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) October consumer price index.

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