Slight relief for motorists as fuel prices marginally fall

By Victor MUJIDU

Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has marginally reduced the cost of fuel by Ksh0.47 ($0.003) per litre amid grievous public discontent over the high cost of living and over-taxation.

The new measures however leave retail prices unaltered and relatively unfavorably to an average price increase of Ksh8.33 ($0.06) per litre in the last review cycle (May 15 to June 14).

EPRA lowered the costs of petrol and diesel by Ksh0.66 ($0.004) per litre and Ksh1.12 ($0.008) per litre respectively and increased the price of kerosene by Ksh0.35 ($0.002) per litre from the review cycle starting from June 15 to July 14.

As a result, a litre of super petrol will retail at Ksh182.04 in Nairobi, diesel, and kerosene will also retail at Ksh167.28 ($1.2) and Ksh161.48 ($1.16) respectively.

In a previous review (May 15 to June 14), fuel prices were increased by an average of Ksh8.33 ($0.06) per litre where Super Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene increased by Kshs.3.40 ($0.02) per litre, Kshs.6.40 ($0.04) per litre and Kshs.15.19 ($0.11) per litre respectively after a subsidy on Diesel and Kerosene was abolished.

This caused an alteration of the fuel retail amount in Nairobi to Ksh182.70 ($1.31), Ksh168.40 ($1.21) and Ksh161.13 ($1.15) respectively.

Price review of the previous fuel importation

In the previous fuel price review, the cost of imported fuel made super petrol to decrease by 1.09 per cent to $716.15 (Ksh100,047) per cubic metre in May 2023 from $724.01 (Ksh101,144) per cubic metre in April 2023.

The cost of diesel increased by 0.84 per cent to $693.86 (Ksh96,812) per cubic metre from $688.07 (Ksh96,113) per cubic meter in the same period.

On the other hand, the cost of imported kerosene decreased by 0.83 per cent to $693.71 (Ksh96,911) per cubic metre from $699.54 (Ksh97,725) per cubic metre.

The international crude oil prices have declined by 24 per cent in the last 12 months to a low of $79.55 (Ksh11,113) per barrel in May 2023 from a high of $104 (Ksh14,528) per barrel in June 2022. The shilling is still facing a drawback against the powerful US Dollar with the shilling depreciating by 19 per cent to Ksh141.39 from Ksh118.53.

In this regard, the skyrocketing cost of fuel is expected to stagger the shilling with the monthly overall inflation for May rising to eight per cent from 7.9 per cent in April as a result of high food and fuel prices.