New fuel prices set

Tawanda Musarurwa Senior Business Reporter
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) has announced new fuel prices that differ depending on location, after the authority – for the first time ever – factored in the cost of trucking fuel.

In a notice, Zera said the cost of fuel was distributed according to zones, which mainly factored in the cost of moving it to different places.

In respect of the new pricing model, motorists in Victoria Falls will pay the most at $10,56 per litre of petrol and $10,86 for diesel while in Masvingo, a litre of petrol now costs $10,21 and diesel $10,51 per litre.

Consumers of petrol in Chinhoyi will now be paying $10,14 per litre of petrol, while diesel in that area has been priced at $10,44.

For Harare petrol has gone up by 89 cents to $10,01 per litre, while diesel is 96 cents up to $10,32 per litre.

“The changes in the fuel prices are due to the FOB (Free on Board) price movements and the revised duty regime applicable from Monday, August 26, 2019,” said Zera in a statement.

FOB basically refers to costs involved in shipping the product.

“The petroleum prices applicable in the various cities represent the maximum pump prices taking into account the transport costs.”

The fuel situation in the country has improved over the past few weeks as the local currency prices move towards parity with the United States dollar price.

Previous misalignment in the fuel prices – due to unjustified subsidies – had resulted in instances of significant arbitrage as the country was not receiving all the fuel that it had paid for, with a significant quantity being smuggled out of the country.