Africa-Press – Eswatini. The latest fuel price hike has sent shivers down the spines of motorists, who have reacted with shock and exasperation.
Motorists have been hit hard by another hike, which kicks in tonight.
This has left public transport operators bemused at how quickly the fuel hike has been effected, while they were still awaiting to effect their own hike as a result of the previous fuel price hike, which came into effect at the beginning of last month.
The industry was still waiting for a gazette of the new bus and kombi fares which were introduced as a result of the last fuel price increase.
However, given tonight’s fuel price hike, public transport operators have made it known that they will now have no other solution, but to implement another bus and kombi fares hike. This means they will be making another proposal for an increase as soon as the gazette for the bus and kombi fares hike is issued.
Swaziland Local Transport Association Secretary General Ambrose Dlamini said the fuel price hike changed everything.
“The fares which we initially agreed on are now useless because of these new changes, they will not help us in anyway,” Dlamini stated.
Gazette
He explained that even the fares which were still to be effected on the incoming gazette were not helping them that much, and now that the fuel price has been hiked, the situation had been made worse.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy Principal Secretary Dorcas Dlamini announced the petrol price increase by 50 cents per litre, with diesel and paraffin prices going up by one lilangeni per litre.
The ministry explained that the main reason for the fuel price increases was due to the crude oil price increase, which reached an average of US$118.82, which is equivalent to E1 740 per barrel in March, 2022 from an average of US$92.82, which is equivalent to E1 347 in the month of February 2022 as a result of the disruption in the oil supply caused mainly by the recent Russian and Ukraine conflict, thus putting pressure on the international fuel product prices.
“The Lilangeni/Dollar exchange rate remained high at an average of E15.07 showing slight improvement from an average of E15.25 realised in the month of February, 2022,” the statement from the ministry reads.
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