Minister of Information, Gospel Kazako has said that Tonse Alliance government could not manage to control the increase of fuel prices in the country as fuel prices hike is currently a global concern.
The Minister made the remarks recently in Lilongwe during a media briefing which was organized by Ministry of Information and Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) to clarify on the recent fuel hike in the country.
Kazako said that government is concerned with the increase of fuel prices in the country however he said the challenge is inevitable.
In his remarks MERA Chief Executive Officer, Henry Kachaje said that the hiking of fuel prices was made using Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) which was adopted in 2012 and he said through this system prices are adjusted when the change in the landed cost is beyond the negative or positive five percent trigger band.
He also said that, the current fuel prices increase were not able to be controlled as MERA is facing a shortage of Price Stabilization Fund which is used to control fuel prices when it has been hiked globally.
At the moment, Petrol is selling at K1, 150. 00 per litre from K899. 20 per litre representing a 27. 89 percent increase, Diesel is selling at K1, 120 per litre from K899. 00 per litre representing an increase of 24. 72 percent and Paraffin is now at K833. 20 per litre from 719. 60 per litre, representing an increase of 15. 79 percent.
