By Pemphero Malimba:
The Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) says ensuring adequate fuel supply, accompanied by an official fuel price hike, may help curb the flourishing black market for the commodity.
This follows the booming black market for fuel, which has prompted the police to begin arresting black market vendors and confiscating fuel as part of efforts to sanitise the fuel business in the country.
Over the weekend, the police conducted a special operation in some parts of the country, arresting several vendors and confiscating quantities of fuel from illegal selling points.
For instance, in Lilongwe and Mponela in Dowa, the police confiscated 60 and 25 litres of fuel, respectively and arrested the owners of the fuel.
Cama Executive Director John Kapito said that while the arrests were crucial, there is a need to implement sustainable measures to curb the fuel black market, including ensuring adequate fuel supply across the country.
“The prices in the black market would not have been so high if the government had increased the price by 30 or 15 percent. It would not have been as difficult to find fuel.
“The police will arrest the vendors but the most important thing is that fuel should be available across the country and the black market will be curbed,” Kapito said.
He added that the challenges arising from fuel scarcity are due to the government’s failure to heed its own recommendations.
“We said this in our press release but people argued and insulted us. When we said that fuel scarcity creates a black market, which operates dangerously with unsafe practices and higher prices, we were ignored,” Kapito said.
National police spokesperson Peter Kalaya said the police will continue conducting operations to ensure that the fuel business remains orderly.
“We have officers on the ground conducting patrols and through them, we have made numerous arrests and confiscations of jerry cans full of fuel.
“We hope that when the fuel supply normalises, the situation on the black market will also stabilise and we will return to normal operations,” Kalaya said.
Currently, the government is relying on 51 million litres of fuel procured from the United Arab Emirates through a government-to-government arrangement facilitated by Kenya, to improve fuel supply in the country.
For several months, various stakeholders, including the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change, have been urging the government to raise fuel prices, hoping this would address fuel scarcity challenges.
However, the government has repeatedly remained unmoved by these calls.
Government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu recently told The Daily Times that despite calls for a fuel price hike, President Lazarus Chakwera is cautious about approving the suggestion.
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