No season’s cheer as ERC hikes fuel prices

A customer buys kerosine at a filling station. A litre of the commodity will retail at 0.90 more beginning Friday. (Photo: File/Standard)

Motorists will have to dig deeper into their pockets this festive season after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) hiked fuel pump prices to a four-month high.

Consumers of super petrol will bear the biggest burden, with the regulator effecting a Sh1.47 price hike on a litre of the fuel in Nairobi in its monthly pricing guide.

The budgets of poor households that mostly rely on kerosene for cooking and lighting will also be constrained further, with a litre of the fuel now retailing at Sh0.19 more while consumers of diesel, mostly used in public transport and by manufacturers, will have to fork out Sh0.03 more for every litre of the commodity.

The rise in pump prices is expected to further strain the economy, which is already reeling from a prolonged electioneering period.

This is the fourth time in as many months that the ERC has hiked fuel pump price since July when prices reduced marginally, with a litre of super petrol retailing at Sh97.10 in Nairobi.

Following the changes, motorists in Nairobi will now pay a maximum of Sh104.17 per litre of super petrol while their counterparts in Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru will pay Sh100.89, Sh106.13, and Sh104.88 respectively.

A litre of diesel will, on the other hand, retail at a maximum of Sh92.44 in Nairobi, Sh89.17 in Mombasa, Kisumu (Sh94.61) and Nakuru (Sh93.36).

Kerosene will set consumers in Nairobi back Sh71.42 a litre in Nairobi while the same will cost Sh68.65 in Mombasa, Sh73.34 in Kisumu and Sh72.27 in Nakuru.

ERC blamed the price increase on the average landed cost of imported super petrol, which increased by 4.21 per cent from Sh62 per tonne in October to Sh65,530 in November.

Director-General Robert Oimeke said the marginal weakening of the Kenyan shilling against the US dollar further spiked the price of imported petroleum products.

“Over the same period, the mean monthly US dollar to Kenya shilling exchange rate appreciated by 0.08 per cent from Sh103.51 in October to Sh103.43 in November 2017,” said Mr Oimeke in a statement accompanying the new price caps.

International crude oil prices have had a bumpy trend in the past year starting at $54.15 per barrel in January before dropping to their lowest point this year in June where a barrel was trading at $47.3 and rising to $63.65 per barrel.