Hurting Tanzanian LPG dealers now ask Kenya to withdraw ban

A local cooking gas outlet. Tanzanian traders have been accused of exporting adulterated gas into Kenya. [File, Standard]

Tanzanian cooking gas dealers have called for an end to the import ban on the commodity by Kenya, saying it was hurting business in both countries.

Under the aegis of the Tanzania LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) Association, the traders said the blanket ban only served to benefit “a few companies in Kenya” that wanted to monopolise the trade.

“A decision by Kenya to abruptly ban importation of LPG from Tanzania is having a major impact on Tanzanian LPG companies since these companies trade a big part of their volumes with their Kenyan counterparts,” said the association in a statement.

The lobby further argued the decision would also affect Kenyan consumers even as it allowed some companies to operate in a monopolistic set-up.

Deteriorating relations between Kenya and Tanzania recently hit rock bottom when Nairobi banned the importation of LPG coming through the port of Tanga and wheat from Dar es Salaam. Tanzania responded by banning exportation of unprocessed food, including maize, thus shutting off the key ingredient for making ugali, which has gone missing from the dining table of most Kenyan households. The Government has been forced to subsidise the price of a 2kg packet of maize flour and is now selling at Sh90.

Tanzanian LPG companies export about 40,000 metric tonnes of LPG to Kenya annually, out of a total of 100,000 metric tonnes of the commodity imported into Tanzania.

Relations between Kenya and Tanzania have tanked after Kenya decided to ban importation of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Tanzanian exporters in calling on Kenya to rescind the import ban said the decision was not informed by facts.

They denied claims of possible adulteration of their product or under-declaration, which might have resulted in revenue loss by Kenya.

“There is no under-declaration either on quantity or on unit cost to justify a blanket ban on importation of LPG from Tanzania. Any arising issues should be dealt on a case-by-case by relevant authorities,” said the importers in their statement.

Licensed traders

On claims of illegal refilling, the association could not be solved by banning importation of the product by road from Tanzania into Kenya as illegal refillers can still use LPG from Mombasa Port. They asked the Kenyan authorities to fight the problem of illegal re-filling in the same way as other countries in the region and not to use the ban as a tool for achieving this objective. They also challenged the Government to come up with a list of licensed LPG companies in Kenya, with whom they could work with.

The Energy Ministry had claimed the reason most of LPG from Tanzania was adulterated was because it was transported by road through bulk trucks, thus raising safety concerns.

On under-declaration claims, they said: “This situation can be managed case by case and is simple to manage as most of trucks are weighed by Government weighbridges in which electronic slips from weighbridges may be issued and used to check against invoices issued by suppliers. Save for discrepancies within tolerance levels, any person/company found to be breaking the law should be taken to task.” They said that for the ten years they had been supplying Kenya with LPG, they had never had quality issues, noting the two countries had respective bureaus of standards.

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