Fuel Prices Hike As Financial Woes Pile On Kenyans in January

This month seems to getting money more worried due to lack of money with the recent announcement from Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority slapping motorists hard.

In the new announcement, motorists will have no option but to dig deeper in their pockets to pay more for petrol and diesel in the coming days effective Wednesday, January 15, 2020. In addition, the low income houses are not spared either for they will have to dig deeper into their pockets to purchase a litre of Kerosene.

According to the bulletin from Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), the pump price for a litre of super petrol, diesel and kerosene in Nairobi, will increase by 70 cents, 54 cents and Ksh 1.64 per litre respectively. These maximum wholesale and retail new pump prices will take effect on 15 the January and run up to 14 the February 2020.

“The prices are inclusive of eight percent value added tax and the revised rates for railway development levy as well as the Import Declaration fee in line with the Finance Act 2019,” said EPRA’s Director General Mr Robert Pavel Oimeke, in a statement.

The regulator attributes the changes in this month’s fuel prices to increased cost of importation. For instance, cost of importing super petrol rose by 2.21% to US $460.83 in November to US $471.01 per cubic meter in December 2019.

Diesel increased by 1.73 percent to US $493.83 per cubic meter. Over the same period, the shilling exchanged at a mean rate of Ksh 102.20 against the US Dollar in November compared to Ksh101.32 per US dollar in December.