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Petrol up by 50c per litre

10/05/2012 00:00:00 MUSA SIMELANE

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MBABANE – The price of leaded and unleaded petrol in the kingdom has increased by 50 cents per litre.

The increase, which is the third this year, was implemented at midnight. This means the cost of a litre of unleaded petrol has risen from E10. 65 to E11.15, while leaded petrol from E10.70 to E11.20.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy yesterday.

Both grades of diesel also increased by 30 cents.

This means diesel 0.05 per cent has increased from E11.15 to E11.45 per litre while diesel 0.005 per cent from E11.20 to E11.50.

An increase of 20 cents was also effected on paraffin.

Therefore, a litre of paraffin has moved from E8.35 to E8.55.

"The increase in the fuel prices has been necessitated by the crude oil prices which remained high in the month of April 2012, fluctuating above US$118 (about E1 200) per barrel.

"The international product prices for petrol also increased significantly compared to the other products in the month of April," explained Thembinkosi Mamba, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy. He added in a statement that a further increase was necessitated by the Lilangeni/Dollar exchange rate, which weakened consistently last month averaging to E7.6171 in March and E7.8450 last month.

The previous fuel increase in the country was in February this year.

... bus fare hike looms - SCARTA

MBABANE – Swaziland Commercial Amadoda Road Transportation Association (SCARTA) says the latest fuel increase means chaos.

Duma Msibi, the association’s Secretary General, was so shocked by news of the latest fuel increase that he saw it as the last nail in the coffin of the public transport industry.

"This is chaos and I really don’t know how we are going to cope as an industry. To increase transport fares is something inevitable at this point," said Msibi.

He said the latest increase made the 30 per cent transport fare increase request which the association wanted from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport in January this year, no longer relevant. He added that he did not understand why govern-ment delayed attending to the association’s last request for increased fares. "From the looks of things, we may have to make a new request for an increase in fares. I will call an urgent meeting of all members next week to discuss this issue," he said.

He added that further delays in increasing fares may prompt some transport operators to increase fares without the rightful authority.