By: Haja Hawa Koroma
The Ministry of Trade and Industry and Petroleum Regulatory Agency (PRA) on July 7th 2022 held a press conference at the Ministry of Information and Communications conference room to update citizens through the media on the current fuel challenges in the country, and the Government’s intervention in managing the effect on the people.
Mr. Balua Koroma, the Executive Chairman of the PRA intimated that the government has subsidized about Sixty Seven Billion Leones, to reduce the impact of the fuel crisis on its citizens and ensured that the situation is contained for the people.
He stated that the petroleum sector was contributing close to 15% of Sierra Leone`s domestic revenue.
The PRA chairman said that the petroleum sector in Sierra Leone is different from other countries because the sector affects almost every other sector in the country.
“This is why the petroleum sector is highly regulated and the prices of petroleum products are reviewed at the end of every month. The fuel prices are pre-determined because of the effect of the combined referencing of International prices and the foreign exchange because petroleum products are procured using foreign currency”, Mr Koroma explained.
He mentioned that the purchasing price of these products from last year June to this year June has shifted tremendously.
“Petroleum dealers are now buying their products way higher than they used to”, the PRA chairman revealed.
He further mentioned that if the government has not been intervening in managing and subsidizing the prices levied upon the petroleum dealers, no Sierra Leonean will be able to buy fuel as the present fuel cost would have been way higher than it is, due to higher prices set by international dealers.
In addition, he stated that the Russia-Ukraine war escalated the whole fuel crisis because the prices have been moving up even before the war between these nations, as according to him, the war just made a bad situation worse as Sierra Leone amongst other countries highly depends on Russia for petroleum products.
Mr. Baluwa said in 2021 alone the government disbursed close to Two Hundred and Fifty Billion in to stabilize fuel pump prices.
Mr. Baluwa Koroma highlighted the events that took place after the fuel price was increased from Le15, 000 to Le18, 000 on 9th June 2022.
He said that Fuel dealers had wanted for the price to move again from Le18,000 to Le25,000 within three days of the announcement.
“They refused to adhere to their request as they were looking out for the welfare of citizens, and because of this refusal, petroleum dealers kept their fuel and claimed there was a fuel shortage”, he revealed.
He said that they monitored their sales and the amount of fuel they had in their bunkers and found out that there was no fuel shortage they just kept it to force their hand in increasing their fuel price.
“For me I can only say this is not a patriotic act as a Sierra Leonean” Mr. Koroma bemoaned.
Mr Koroma concluded by expressing words of encouragement to citizens, Oil Marketing Companies and other stakeholders involved in the sector to work together in order to manage the situation in the country.
