By Mabinty M. Kamara
People across Sierra Leone have with mixed feelings reacted to the increase in the pump price of petroleum products in the country by 12% as announced by the Petroleum Regulatory Agency (PRA) on Thursday 1 July 2021.
The increase according to the government was influenced by a number of factors among which is smuggling, lack of adequate storage facility to house the required amount of fuel for the population, non-government participation in the importation, storage, and distribution of petroleum products, among others.
“Sierra Leone consumes in excess of 1.1 million liters of petroleum products per day. Sierra Leone can only store 40% of what is used per day. There is frequent replenishment, we replenish the stock every two weeks. People, therefore, tend to hoard or speculate against the availability of petroleum products,” a fact sheet presented to editors at a meeting with government officials reads.
It added that the prices of petroleum products are determined by a combination of international oil reference price (PLARTS) and the foreign exchange rate.
Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday 30th June, the Minister of Information and Communication Mohamed Rahaman Swaray said the government has over the years been subsidizing the fuel price to cushion its effect on the public but that they have realized that the government is benefitting big companies and other neighboring countries into which the products are smuggled because of the difference in prices as Sierra Leone remains the country with the lowest pump price in the sub-region due to government interventions.
“No government would want to review the pump prices of petroleum products. You would see from the leaflets that we have had seven such moments, three of which have been major reduction in pump prices, others, we have had to increase based on global oil market prices and associated cost landing,” he said.
He added: “On a normal day, we would want to be an island onto ourselves and become the country with the cheapest pump price but that is not how the world works. We are part of a bigger global community and systems. So this is where we are. It’s a very tough decision to take but these are factors not under our control”. He therefore called on the public to understand the prevailing circumstance.
According to the fact sheet, the government has since May 2020 intervened by injecting about Le 66bilion (Sixty six billion Leones) and Le 17.43billion in January 2021 to support the pump price stabilization. “Since May 2020 to June 2021, government has intervened by Le 132.11bn” it reads.
The new pump price for all petroleum products, according to the Petroleum Regulatory Agency is Le 9,500 from Le 8,500, effective July 1st, 2021.
These new prices have also directly affected the transportation fare within and traveling outside the capital Freetown by a difference of Le200 and Le5, 000 respectively on all commercial vehicles.
Speaking to Politico, Amadu Koroma, a trader at Saint John in Freetown said the increase in the pump price of petroleum products is better than scarcity in the country which will pose more economic burden on the people than when the prices increase legally. However, he was concerned about the attitude of drivers who he said are going to use the situation to unnecessarily increase transport fare more than the stated government price.
“The drivers are the problem. They will soon start exploiting us especially the eastern drivers. They will either demand high fares or reduce the distances they cover so that people spend more. That is what the government needs to monitor to ensure the people are safe from such practices but that has always been the case in this country and it seems no one cares,” he said.
Ramadan Bah, a Commercial motorbike rider in Kenema expressed disappointment over the situation, noting that it is going to affect them as riders.
“We were expecting a decrease and not an increase in price. Because we buy from the black market at Le 12,000 so if we say we are now to increase fare by Le10, 000 people will not understand with us,” he said.
Jeneba Gombu, a trader at the How- For-Do lorry park in Kenema expressed fears over the effect that the pump price is going to have on other commodities, noting that there is definitely going to be a hike in the prices of other commodities.
Prior to the announcement, a Civil Society Organization, Native Consortium had in a press statement warned the government not to venture to increase the pump price of fuel as it was going to be met with stiff resistance from the public through a peaceful demonstration.
However, in an interview with Politico yesterday 1st July 2021, Edmond Abu the Executive Director of the Consortium said that they have decided to put a hold on the demonstration to observe the situation as fuel dealers had wanted to increase the pump price more than the one announced by the government.
“So we cannot praise the government that it is a good job they have done but I think it’s not bad. When it comes to the transportation price, it is now Le 1,700 so that same Le 2000 that you have been paying to go to Lumley is what you will continue to pay because they have not been giving people their change because of lack of coin. So that is what we are now going to monitor,” he said adding that, “the increment will not affect us more in the city because we have already been paying the same amount though it wasn’t legitimate.”
Speaking to Politico, the President of Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union, Alpha Amadu Bah said they have already engaged their members to ensure that they comply with the government stipulated prices for the different locations.
However, because of the non-availability of the Le100 coins, he called on passengers to have an understanding with the drivers or that they have with them the coin to avoid confrontations over change.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online
