The Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on Monday. March 14 announced an increase in fuel prices.
In its monthly review of the fuel prices, EPRA noted that the cost of Super petrol and diesel would each increase by Ksh5 from tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15 to April 14.
Super Petrol will retail at Ksh134.72 per litre while diesel will go for Ksh115.60 at pump prices. On the other hand, Kerosene prices remain unchanged at Ksh103.54.
The newly announced prices are after the government implemented a Ksh20 subsidy on the products. The actual prices of the petroleum products are Ksh155 .11, Ksh143.16 for diesel and Ksh130.44.
"Government will utilise the Petroleum Development Levy to cushion consumers from the otherwise high prices," the statement read in part.
While the landing costs of petrol, diesel and kerosene range between Ksh71 and Ksh78, several taxes and levies push the price at the pump to nearly double.
Among them include excise duty, road maintenance levy, petroleum development levy, petroleum regulatory levy railway development levy, anti-adulteration levy, merchant shipping levy, import declaration fee and value-added tax (VAT).
For instance, the landing cost of Petrol is Ksh78.14. It attracts distribution and storage costs of Ksh3.35 and taxes and levies totaling to Ksh59.71. However, a price stabilisation deficit of Ksh6.48 is subtracted from the costs to bring it down to Ksh134.72.
The pronouncement by EPRA will further dent the pockets of Kenyans, who are facing difficult financial times owing to the ripple effect of increased costs. Some of the basic commodities that are set to increase in cost include cooking oil and milk
Over the last five months, the prices have remained the same despite the rise of the commodity in the global market - Ksh129.72 for super petrol, Ksh110.6 for diesel and Ksh103.54 for Kerosene.
Prior to today's revision, EPRA had maintained the fuel prices five months since October 21, when the costs of petrol and diesel were lowered by Ksh5 per litre and that of diesel by Ksh7.28 per litre.
Before that, the three costs Ksh 134.72, diesel for Ksh115 and Kerosene retailed at Ksh110.2, a record high in the last five years.
