The Mozambican Association of Fuel Companies (AMEPETROL) calls the situation in the sector “dramatic”, complaining that it is buying fuels at elevated prices, but without prices at filling stations being updated.
“We have absolute faith that the Government understands our situation, that it is supportive and will find mechanisms to ensure that companies continue to operate normally,” the association’s president, Michel Ussene, told Lusa.
Ussene was reiterating warnings AMEPETROL has voiced since the beginning of 2022.
At issue is the fact that there are no price updates at the filling stations, which are supplying fuel at below the purchase price, increasing the amount the state owes the companies.
The chairman of AMEPETROL noted that the occasional fall in the price of crude oil on the international market has not eased import costs in Mozambique, as they are cancelled out by the rise in logistics costs such as transport and insurance.
“We are looking for mechanisms that neither harm the final consumer, nor the government or the companies, so that there is fuel in the entire market,” he emphasised.
This “equation”, he continued, may include the reduction of taxes on petroleum products.
“We understand that the best mechanism may be to temporarily reduce the tax burden, until the international situation changes,” he suggested.
Ussene also said that there was no risk of interrupted supplies to gas stations, especially during the rainy season and with Mozambique in the path of several storms.
A source from the Energy Regulatory Authority (ARENE) also dismissed, in statements to Lusa, any risk of fuel supply shortages in the country, as has already happened, for example, in Malawi.
