Fuel prices skyrocket

The National Business

By DALE LUMA
PUMA Energy PNG Ltd country manager Hulala Tokome says the price of fuel has gone up by close to 80 toea per litre in the space of two months and will jump up again this month.
Effective as of today, new fuel prices for this month announced by the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) for all centres are:

  • PETROL prices will increase by 55.71 toea per litre;
  • DIESEL prices will increase by 77.24 toea per litre; and,
  • KEROSENE prices will increase by 76.40 toea per litre.

“The rising oil prices will have a significant impact on Papua New Guinea this year,” Tokome said. “Pricing in PNG is based on the previous month’s Mean Of Platts Singapore (Mops) pricing,”
“Hence, based on March’s Mops, the significant increase in crude prices globally will have an impact on April import party price or IPP.
“The movement up in oil prices is being felt around the world. The most evident is the increased global uncertainty and impact caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Locally, the price of fuel has gone up by close to 80 toea per litre just over the last couple of months, and it will surely jump up again in April.
“Fuel in any business is a significant cost component so when fuel prices increase based on global oil prices, businesses struggle to absorb the added costs. This leads to many companies compensating for rising costs by ultimately passing on costs to consumers via higher prices for their goods and services.”
Tokome said another avenue open to the Government to drive economic activity and support communities would be to reduce the excise on petrol from a high 62t per litre to a comparable rate equivalent to Diesel at 23t per litre or even scrap it altogether.
“This would also have a much greater impact on the lives of our people, particularly within the rural communities who use petrol or zoom,” he added.
He clarified that the reduction of import tariffs on petroleum products would not have a flow-on benefit for the consumer, and would only increase margins for non-refining importers as there was currently no avenue for distributors to pass the import tariff to the public.