Fuel price confusion
By ANTON HUAFOLO
INCONSISTENCY in new retail prices for diesel and kerosene released last Friday could result in confusion on how much customers have to pay for the two petroleum products.
While the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) posted decreases on landed retail prices for diesel and kerosene when it released new price changes for petroleum products for the month of March last Friday, distributor InterOil increased its prices for these two products that very same day.
From information provided, ICCC’s indicated price for diesel is K2.99 per litre, compared to InterOil’s new price of K3.10 per litre.
This shows that InterOil is charging 11 toea more on diesel than what is allowed by the country’s price regulator.
For kerosene, ICCC had set the landed price for the product at K2.83, compared to InterOil’s new price of K2.93 per litre.
Again InterOil is charging 10 toea more for a litre of kerosene compared to what is allowed by the ICCC.
The only consistency is the price of petrol, which both the ICCC and InterOil said will retail at the landed cost of K3.58 per litre.
The new price changes took effect last Friday, and with InterOil implementing its new price increases, this will again hit customers hard.
Questions were e-mailed to the ICCC and InterOil on why there are inconsistency in prices of diesel and kerosene.
However, there was no immediate response from the ICCC.
InterOil’s senior manager for media relations Susuve Laumaea said queries by The National on the fuel prices inconsistency were forwarded “to board and management for InterOil for appropriate company response…”
He added: “Yes, industry player’s new retail price compared to industry regulator’s are not the same.
“Obviously, there is a good explanation from both sides for the inconsistency.”
Diesel, for the month of February, was retailed at K3.00 per litre in Port Moresby; kerosene was sold at K2.84 per litre and petrol was selling for K3.50 per litre. InterOil attributed its price hike for the month of March to the high world crude oil price.
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