Cama vindicated over fuel price hike—Kapito

The Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) says the latest fuel price hike effected on Tuesday this week vindicates his earlier statement that prices for the commodity will keep skyrocketing.

Reacting to the news, Cama executive director John Kapito said policy makers, including the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) should stop propagating partisan propaganda which misleads the market and the poor.

“I ask policy makers, including RBM, to come out and justify why they misled masses by saying that fuel prices will not go up soon,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minibus Owners Association of Malawi (Moam) secretary general Coxley Kamange said Moam was not happy with the recent fuel price hike describing it as a huge setback since it has come at a time when businesses were picking up.

“Our businesses had just started doing well and this is a huge setback,” he said.

Fuel prices went up on Tuesday following  what the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) said was due to economic trends, including depreciation of the kwacha against major trading currencies.

According to the new price, petrol is now at K736 60 from K680 80, diesel has jumped to K730 80 from K657 40. Paraffin for domestic use remains at K171, while for industrial use has gone up to K603 from K535 50.