The MDC Renewal Team has strong fears that the fuel being sold to motorists at some filling stations across the country is of poor quality as some of it is being brought into the country using illegal channels.
Investigations carried out by the MDC Renewal Team have revealed that some fuel importers are evading paying tax while the relevant government authorities are not taking the necessary precautions to stop this and thereby seriously compromising on the quality of fuel.
Most fuel importers are evading using the Feruka petroleum pipeline that runs from Beira in Mozambique to Harare because they want to evade paying duty to the government and in the process raising concerns over the quality of fuel at some fuel stations.
This has resulted in the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) failing to ensure that the quality of fuel that is imported into Zimbabwe is reliable and supplied safely through effective mechanisms.
During the inclusive government, there was full utilisation of the petroleum pipeline and this created competition in the fuel sector. However, this competition has been killed and the usage of the pipeline everyday has gone down which means the quality of the fuel has been affected with importers opting for more road usage.
The low quality of the fuel has resulted a high number of vehicles breaking down breaking down across the country. The MDC Renewal Team is also concerned that the government of the day remains silent on its policy regarding to the mandatory blending of fuel using the ethanol product in light of the falling international prices of oil.
The international prices of fuel are consistently going down and naturally, the price of fuel and ethanol blending are expected to go down in Zimbabwe significantly but the prices remain static.
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Post published in: Business