Energy Minister David Mabumba says the recent increase in fuel pump prices as announced by the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) indicates the removal of fuel subsidies on fuel by the government.
In a ministerial statement in parliament this afternoon, Mr. Mabumba says this is in line with the decision the PF Government announced in 2014 to remove subsidies on fuel in order to promote cost reflective tariffs in the energy sector.
Mr. Mabumba says government has spent US$ 200 million on fuel subsidies from 2014 up to the time the subsidies were removed.
He says this was becoming a burden to the national treasury as well becoming unsustainable.
Meanwhile Mr. Mabumba has announced the closure of Indeni Oil Refinery for routine maintenance from October 19th to November 30th.
Meanwhile, the ruling Patriotic Front has described as illogical accusations that it lied to the Zambian people that the price of fuel would not be increased after this year’s elections.
PF Deputy Spokesperson Frank Bwalya has wondered how the party can be accused of having told a lie when it did not issue any statement prior to the elections to the effect that the price of fuel would never be increased.
Mr. Bwalya says the PF is aware that the price of fuel in the country is determined by the price of Crude Oil on the international market.
He says no one should therefore claim that the ruling PF is happy that the price of fuel in the country has been increased.
Mr. Bwalya tells QTV News that this is especially that PF members are also buying fuel at the same increased prices.
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Have you seen it here? fool, even shops where they are plenty of them you have to be shown? subsidy here is the topic!
I think we are not being told the truth. Weren’t fuel subsidies removed by SATA? Can someone especially those from the so-called Zambia Energy Forum enlighten us, please?
Good luck if you expect any meaningful comment from the PF vuvuzela, Johnston Chikwanda.
I do recall fuel subsidies being removed by the Late Sata!
Zambians are going to pay dearly for their mediocrity. They will only have themselves to blame for choosing mediocrity over development. The IMF should also push the government to increase electricity tariffs by at least 40%. We shall see if those who were dancing dununa reverse naked if they will continue.
Some of you people are surely voices of the unreasonable. How do you look forward to people suffering. Please provide a solution to the problem
The solution to the problem was missed with the stooges who danced Dununa Reverse and voted PF. The only solution right now is for PF and Lungu to resign and call for fresh elections, now that people know that fuel will not reduce to K5.50 per litre and instead has jumped 40%. So what was Lungu doing in Saudi Arabia in May? Was he doing some Islamic tourism instead? What religion is Lungu anyway?
This is now the new political excuse. Next increase will be explained as phase two in removal of subsidies…
The minister should state categorically whether all subsidies on fuel have been removed (ie 100% removal). We dont want six months down the line some one to come and remove subsidies again.
THERE WERE promises of cheaper fuel not long ago (after so-called cooperation agreements with some Arab state(s) And weren’t fuel subsidies removed sometime back? Anyway, whatever the case, what is important to hold this government accountable to, is to insist on seeing exactly how the savings from the removal of the same, will be used. Figures of the subsidies removed have ranged between $100 million and $500 million. It is usually easy to say the money ‘saved’ will be used to cushion the social economic circumstances of the vulnerable people – when in fact it is either never accounted for, or used for the numerous emoluments of senior politicians. Do we have mechanisms to trace this? I shudder – especially with this plan devoid government.
African black people are too dull to get out of poverty-period!Its now 26 years since KK left and we have failed to consistently drive the economy in a positive direction. PF have no solutions, they will always have excuses.From their choice of President to the whole of cabinet you can see that we up for some serious problems again and ag ain….
i would love to know what HH’S Ten point plan was going to do differently owing to the fact that he too has said the subsidies should be done away with. Even given a chance to dance dubuna again, wouldn’t waste a second dancing dununa forward because they surely were not a reasonable bunch.
Yeah. Shd be done away wt reasonably not in this way. Does PF kno that there ar no jobs in Z& that graduates ar loitering streets without finding a simple job? Y build more universities wen it does not make any difference to graduants? Operation cost have tripled for businesses which will for them to either reduced the no of employees, not employ, or even close down Esp mines if electricity tarrifs go up. Really its a shame to claim that the promise of subsidy removal was made in 2014 wen its a lie! Zambian pipo have memories! This yr August was full of fake promises. Remember 2021 is coming! The poorest will die of poverty! Shame on u politicians! That’s y Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t vote.
The subsidy that was removed was when the host per barrel of oil was fetching over $ 100. The current subsidy is the difference GRZ was putting up for the useless kwacha
Frank Bwalya has SHI***t for brains! Does he know the price of oil per barrel on the world market?
And subsidies are we talking about here, they were removed way back or are there any left? They will again increase and say its removal of subsidies? Non**sense!
Yes that’s what we all know, that subsidies were removed during the reign of the late Sata.There was no communication to the nation that Edgar Lungu restored those subsidies. They should just say it is an increase in fuel prices so that they make more money to help pay back the huge debt that we owe the donors and take care of other needs. They should just be transparent and open.