The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) says it will revert to reviewing fuel prices on a weekly basis depending on the Reserve Bank foreign currency auction exchange rate.
The authority has been reviewing fuel price on a monthly basis having abandoned the weekly reviews.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy, ZERA acting CEO Eddington Mazambani said they will amend the statutory instrument which established pricing of fuel on a monthly basis.
“We have had the exchange rate used for fuel differently from the one prevailing in the market but If the auction exchange is the one which is going to be used to procure fuel yes we are going to change fuel prices on a weekly basis and we have already done an amendment to the Statutory Instrument which established the pricing of fuel on a monthly basis to move back to weekly which we used to do before,” he said
Mazambani said ZERA would also look at the pricing structure of ethanol which is used in blending the fuel.
“On the issue of ethanol pricing we did an exercise in 2013/14 on the costing structure. At that time they were not producing a lot. The cost structure was a bit on the high side we are engaging with producers on the cost structure. We want to interrogate the costing structure with the producers,” he added.
This week fuel prices went up, over 200 percent with the cost of blending seemingly making local fuel ,more expensive.
This has prompted public skepticism over the compulsory blending which is widely viewed as enriching ethanol producers.
According to National Oil Infrastructure Company (NOIC) chairperson Engineer Daniel McKenzie Ncube the country on average requires around 130 to 140 million litres of combined fuel products.
Fuel supplies in the country have been erratic owing to shortage of foreign currency despite assurances of its availability from the central bank.
