President William Ruto has announced plans of removal of the fuel subsidy program terming it unsustainable.
During his inaugural speech on Tuesday, September 13, Ruto said the fuel subsidy had led to an artificial shortage of the product and further burdened the National Treasury.
“If the subsidy continues to the end of the financial year, it will cost taxpayers Ksh280 billion, equivalent to the entire national government development budget,” he stated.
The removal of the subsidy means that consumers will have to cope with high pump prices
The Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA) is today Wednesday, September 14 expected to announce new fuel prices for the month of September.
The Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) had earlier warned of impeding fuel price hikes due to the failure by the exchequer to remit funds owned to oil marketers.
KPC further attributed the looming price hike to marketers going slow on picking the product at the Kipevu Oil Storage Facility and other storage areas, thus causing a shortage.
EPRA has also announced plans to review the KPC storage and pipeline tariffs, a move which would have a ripple effect on fuel prices.
“The pipeline capacity doesn’t directly impact the fuel as there are other dynamics such as oil and gas, not just in Kenya but internationally. The tariff doesn’t have anything to do with the supply and demand beyond the pump prices that we have,” KPC stated.
