CAPTION: A Blue Gas truck charges up the IDC Flame at Courts IDC in Ba last year. Photo: SHALENDRA PRASAD.
The Fuel Price Review for the first quarter includes a fall in the price of premix used in outboard motors, no change to the price of diesel but increases in the price of Liquid Petroleum Gas ( LPG), petrol and kerosene.
The rise in the price of gas – announced today by the Attorney General and Minister for Industry – reflects political tension in the Middle East on the supply side, which has restricted the volume of gas available on the global market. It also reflects a major rise in demand for gas in the Eurozone due to an unseasonably cold and prolonged winter.
Fijian households will pay 17 per cent more for a 4.5 KG cylinder of LPG, which goes up in price from $15.12 to $17.76. A 12 kg cylinder will now cost $47.36, up from $40.32, also a rise of 17 per cent. The same margin applies to a kilogram of bulk LPG, which increases from $2.69 to $3.16. Autogas goes up 19 per cent from $1.85 to $2.21 a litre.
But the increases are still significantly below the level of last June, when a 12 kilogram cylinder of LPG cost $54.00. “We have had big fluctuations in the price of gas over the last few months but we are still on the lower end of the scale compared to seven months ago,” the Attorney General said. “Any rise of this scale is out of our control as price-takers but Fijian households are still paying less for LPG than last June”.
Retail fuel costs have also moved because of variations in the Singapore pricing mechanism for fuel ( Means of Platts Singapore – MOPS), average exchange rates and international freight variations.
Premix falls from $2.50 to $2.47 a litre, diesel stays the same at $2.31 a litre, motor spirits rises by one cent from $2.52 a litre to $2.53 and kerosene goes up by two cents a litre from $1.84 to $1.86 a litre.
The Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, said that in general, fuel prices had remained relatively stable. “I’m sure than many people in the maritime areas will welcome the fall in the price of pre-mix for outboard motors and the like. Similarly, the transport industry will be pleased that the price of diesel remains unchanged”, the Attorney General added.
MINFO