MOTORISTS TO PAY LESS FOR PETROL, MORE FOR DIESEL AS ERC REVISES FUEL PRICES

Poor households that use kerosene for cooking and lighting have been hit hardest in the yesterday's review of petroleum pricing. While motorists got a tiny reprieve of 11 cents per litre of petrol, kerosene prices rose by Sh1.46 a litre in the prices announced by the Energy Regulatory Commission ( ERC). Diesel has gone up by Sh1.28 to Sh77.48 per litre in the new retail pump prices that are effective midnight till May 14, 2015. "Taking into account the weighted average cost of imported refined petroleum products, the overall result is that the maximum allowed price of super petrol decreases by Sh0.11 per litre, that of diesel increases by Sh1.28 per litre, while that of Kerosene increases by Sh1.46 per litre compared to the last publication," said ERC Director General Joseph Ng'ang'a. The changes mirrored movements in the prices of the different products, which are independently imported by various companies, according to the ERC. Now, the costlier kerosene will complicate fortunes for the most vulnerable households which are already battling his food prices following a sustained drought countrywide. Earlier, the agency had warned that the rise in the cost of crude oil in the international markets was likely to keep the local prices on a trajectory. But the marginal drop in the price of petrol could perhaps come as a surprise considering the sharp rise in March that was effective till last night. Then, ERC attributed the Sh4.47 increase to a 22 per cent rise in prices of refined products in the international market since January. ERC came under heavy criticism on that, and several other occasions, for keeping prices for petroleum products at higher than fair levels, different consumers have complained. But yesterday, the regularor announced that the average landed cost of imported super petrol decreased by 1.46 per cent from $645.69 to $636.26 per tonne in March 2015. Imported diesel See Also: Imported items to cost more as Kenya shilling slips to three-year low Over the same period, the average landed cost of imported diesel increased by 1.91 per cent to $566.29 per tonne while kerosene increased by 3.50 per cent to 594.75 per tonne in March 2015. During the period under review, the mean monthly US dollar exchange rate against the Kenya shilling depreciated by 0.72 per cent from 91.41 per US dollar in February 2015 to Sh 92.07 per US dollar in March 2015. The retail pump price in Mombasa for super petrol will be Sh86.04 per litre, 74.21 per litre for diesel and Sh54.49 per litre for kerosene. In Nairobi, super, diesel and kerosene will now cost Sh 89.35, Sh 77.48 and Sh57.21 per litre respectively.