Tanzania President holds Cabinet meeting over high fuel prices
Monday May 09 2022
An attendant fuels a car at a petrol station in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania . FILE PHOTO | NMG
Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan has directed her Cabinet to find “an immediate solution” to rising fuel prices.
The President had called an emergency meeting on Sunday night over the record high prices announced last week by the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura).
The new prices, which came to effect on Wednesday, May 4, represented an increase of 9.5 percent for petrol and 17.1 percent for diesel following hikes of 12 and 21 percent, respectively in April.
Kerosene went up by 16 percent in May from a 21 percent increase in April.
Read: Fuel prices hit new highs in Tanzania
Ewura attributed the price changes to rising prices in the global markets which affected about 93 percent of the retail prices and “about 4 percent to premiums”.
The Cabinet night meeting in the commercial hub Dar es Salaam was attended by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, the ministers of energy and finance, and the Tanzania Revenue Authority commissioner-general, among others.
Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, Mhe. Samia Suluhu Hassan, ameitisha Kikao cha dharura usiku wa leo tarehe 08 Mei Ikulu ya Dar es Salaam kujadili tatizo la kupanda kwa bei ya mafuta nchini. @venusnyota pic.twitter.com/53mbaVa7Cp
— ikulu_Tanzania (@ikulumawasliano) May 8, 2022
Last week, the PM held a similar meeting with energy and finance ministers and top officials from Ewura, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation and Petroleum Bulk Procurement Agency.
Rising fuel prices hurt households as the cost of basic goods and services increases.