IN LIBERIA, THERE are commodities that determine the financial expenditure of a struggling household, including rice, gasoline/fuel and iron ore. When the prices of these commodities are increased, families either go to bed hungry, are unable to go about their daily activities or are downsized from their jobs.
INFORMATION REACHING THE Hot Pepper suggests that there is gasoline and diesel in country to serve the local market until the end of August 2022—approximately six months—but the conspiracy of increasing the price of the commodity has been in the making a long time ago, and the actors are only tapping on the prevailing circumstance to seal their deal.
ACCORDING TO INFORMATION, the last petroleum vessel came in on February 14, 2022 and departed on February 16, and brought 12,500 metric tons of gasoline. The vessel goes by the name, “MT BW LYNX”. Besides, a tanker vessel, “MT DUKE”, was here on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, and brought in about 2,400 metric tons of HFO.
WITH THIS HUGE quantity of the commodity in country, one is left to wonder why would the government choose to increase the price of gasoline and fuel when it could have prevailed on the sellers to maintain the price until the commodity that is already in stock goes low.
SPEAKING TO THE Hot Pepper on the basis of anonymity, a major gas and fuel importer disclosed that government is playing double-face with the Liberian people, and what is being concealed is that the new price of gasoline and diesel fuel is an inflated price by the Government of Liberia (GOL) and not the agreed one between them and the importers of the commodities.
ACCORDING TO THE importer, when the global crisis began, the importers of oil and gas, along with government’s relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC), convened to have an increase on the price of the commodity. However, the importers suggested that the price of gasoline be at US$4.80 and diesel fuel at US$5.10, but this is not the case. “We thought that the government would have appealed to us to reduce the price we suggested, but to our utmost surprise they added about 90 cents on each of the commodities,” the importer revealed.