The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has surprised Kenyans by leaving fuel costs unchanged in its mid-month price review.
This means that Kenyans will continue paying the same for fuel products as they have for the past one month.
The energy sector regulator did not however disclose its reason for leaving the prices unchanged in spite of a rise in the landed cost of fuel imports in the period.
The average landed cost of imported super petrol increased by 9.3 per cent while the landed cost of diesel and kerosene was up by 4.8 and 7.3 per cent respectively.
This implies that EPRA did not impact the changes in landed costs to the pricing formula it uses to calculate new maximum prices which run from every 15th day of the month.
Nevertheless, players in the value chain seem to have soaked in the price increments by settling for lower margins.
For instance, a breakdown of the new costing formula shows supplier margins for super petrol fell to Ksh.7.95 per litre from Ksh.12.39.
Margins for diesel were meanwhile down at Ksh.10.08 while margins earned from the supply of kerosene fell to Ksh.8.89 from Ksh.12.36 respectively.
Subsequently, the schedule of fuel prices across the country will remain unchanged for the next month as published on March 14.
Petrol costs will remain at Ksh.122.81 per litre in the Capital Nairobi, diesel will meanwhile remain at a par Ksh.107.66 and kerosene at Ksh.97.85.
The hold in costs is on the back of uproar by Kenyans on exorbitant prices at the pump with the price of petrol for instance having soared by more than Ksh.20 per litre in the prior three reviews.
The higher fuel costs pushed the rate of inflation to an 11-month high 5.9 per cent in March packing more pressure to the purchasing power of Kenyans.
The non-movement in maximum pump prices will remain as so until EPRA’s next review on May 14.
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