By NATION REPORTER
GOVERNMENT should revert to the old fuel importation system and abandon the current method of road transportation which has many flaws and proved to be economically not convenient, former Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) president, Lubinda Haabazoka has said.
Dr Haabazoka said Government should revert to importing comingled crude oil instead of using tanker trucks to bring in finished products.
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He said the problem was that Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) were now reluctant to transport petroleum products because they felt that they were getting a raw deal from the monthly review of fuel prices mechanism.
Dr Haabazoka said the economy was growing and it was important to explore ways of importing comingled feedstock, which could be later processed in the country.
He called on the government to come up with mechanisms that would make it easy to control the pump price of fuel.
Dr Haabazoka said the mechanisms to control the pump price of fuel should be expeditiously implemented because price volatility would continue to negatively affect citizens if nothing was done about it.
“The economy cannot grow if the government continues to use tankers to import fuel in the country and therefore, they need to ensure that it reverts back to the old system,” Dr Habazoka said.
And Governance activist Andrew Ntewewe said Government’s move to zero rate Value Added Tax had negatively impacted the fuel pump price.
Mr Ntewewe said the policies that Government had put in place were only benefitting the rich at the expense of the poor.
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