Tag Archives: Collins Magalasi

Malawi

Malawi energy body rules out fuel price hike amid rising international oil price

Maneno Chimulala
Malawi energy body rules out fuel price hike amid rising international price

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Fuel prices in Malawi will not be increased despite rising oil prices on the international market as the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) has committed to cover  any anticipated importation loses by the fuel importers with Price Stabilization Fund, MaraviPost has learnt.

In a press statement, Friday,  made available to the MaraviPost, MERA says the average FOB (Free On Board) prices of petrol, diesel and paraffin increased in the month of June 2020 by 111.93%, 77.1% and 155.32%, respectively when compare to the average prices which were applied when determining the ruling prices.

According to MERA, the increase in the FOB prices on the international market is attributed to output cuts by the OPEC+, and increased demand of oil following the easing of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in consuming countries.

“MERA assessed the combined effect of the movement of the FOB prices and exchange rate of the Malawi Kwacha to the United States Dollar as well as changes in local factors that determine the maximum pump prices. It was noted that the landed costs of petrol, diesel and paraffin increased by 44.89%, 28.69% and 51.04%, respectively.

“Therefore, in line with the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) all the three products qualified for an upward price adjustment since the changes in their landed costs were beyond the ±5% trigger limit. However, the MERA Board resolved to maintain pump prices at the current levels and that any anticipated importation loses by the fuel importers will be covered by the Price Stabilization Fund,” reads the statement partly.

This means that prices of Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene will remain at  K690.50, K664.80 and K441.70 per litre respectively.

Business, Top News

Cama’s director Kapito describes Escom proposal on electricity hike with 60% as “stupid”

Patience Mandowa
By Alick Junior Sichali
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The Executive Director for Consumers Association of Malawi, {CAMA}, John Kapito has described the proposal of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to raise power tariffs with 60 percent as stupid.
Kapito has said this as the country’s energy regulator, Mera is holding public consultations to hear the views of other stakeholders on the proposed tariff increment.
The Executive Director of Cama said Escom consumers cannot pay more for electricity in the country because people are spending most of their days in blackouts due to the load shedding.
“You cannot raise a product which you don’t have, even if you go on the streets and ask the views of the consumers on the matter they will tell you that they cannot pay much for the product they don’t have yet,” Kapito said.
According to Kapito instead of the utility body proposing of the electricity tariff it should be thinking of how it can provide best services to Malawians.
Kapito further said if Malawians are having electricity for 24 hours the utility body can even raise the electricity tariffs with a bigger percent than that they proposing and consumers will pay for it.
“They are holding public hearings on electricity hike instead of finding ways they can offer best services to the Malawians thus what I call stupid and I repeat it is stupid to be doing that,”.
“People are complaining of the current persistence blackouts in the country and then they are proposing power tariff hike with 60 percent how can one pay for a product they don’t have I suggest that the meetings they are holding where supposed to be on finding ways to end the blackouts not increasing the tariff,” Kapito explained.
Chief Executive Officer of Escom, Alexon Chiwaya, said the new base tariff once approved will enable the utility body to be offering best customers services to the public.
The CEO of Escom said they have lined up a number of projects which will help to end the current power outages haunting the nation but they will require more money to implement them hence the suggested 60 percent electricity hike.
Chiwaya faulted the previous administration of not investing more in power sector saying this has caused the country to be in the current crisis.
“We are proposing that in our new base tariff there should be a 60 percent hike on electricity, we are proposing this because we have a number of projects which we want to implement and they will require more money,” Chiwaya said.
But Mera’s Chief Executive Officer, Collins Magalasi, says they will make final decision on the proposed tariff increment at the end of these consultations.
Magalasi said the utility body is mandated to submit its base tariff after 4 years.
According to Magalasi the public hearings will enable the country’s energy regulator to make an excellent decision of public interest on the matter.
“We have received the proposed base tariff of Escom and now we are doing public hearings with stakeholders on the issue, these public hearings will enable us to make a decision of public interest at the end of this month,” Magalasi said.
Meanwhile Mera has hold public hearings in Blantyre, Lilongwe and a similar meeting is also expected to take place in Mzuzu.
Business, Malawi, Top News

Aftermath of diesel-powered generators; Electricity tariffs to go up by 24.67%

Special Absalom

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Malawians will start dipping deeper in their pockets to pay for electricity as Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) has approved a tariff hike of 24.57% but has instructed the state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to effect the raise when they starts using the generators.

Mera chief executive officer, Collins Magalasi, disclosed that the energy regulator approved the tariff hike but have written Escom to put on hold the new tariffs because “people have not started enjoying the benefits of the improved service.”

Magalasi said Escom can implement the new tariffs when it starts supplying power from the diesel-powered generators expected to be expensive to run.

Escom will raise the tariffs from the current K53.80 (about $0.09) per kilowatt-hour to K73.23.

In Malawi, electricity tariffs are expected to be reviewed every four years and since 2008, there have been two electricity tariff reviews, the first being from 2009 to 2013 and the second from 2014 to 2017.

The tariff increase comes at a time when Escom has been rationing power due to reduced generation capacity from the potential demand of 351MW to current levels because of low water levels in Lake Malawi and its sole outlet the Shire River where over 90 percent of hydro power is generated.

The impoverished southern African country which relies on hydroelectricity has been hit by intermittent blackouts since last year, but the outages have recently worsened, lasting up to 25 hours.

But Escom has said there has been increase in power generation from 147 megawatts (MW) to 200MW and load shedding hours will be reduced.

Escom acting public relations manager George Mituka said that on their part, they rely on the amount generated by their sister company, Electricity Generation Company (Egenco).

A number of businesses and hospitals in the country had been forced to use diesel-powered generators to keep the lights on.

According to the World Bank, only 8% of Malawi’s 17 million people have access to electricity.

Business, Malawi, Top News

MERA Maintains prices of Petrol Diesel and Paraffin for month of December

Malawi News Agency (MANA)

Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) considered recent trends in the world petroleum products prices and changes in other macroeconomic fundamentals in the local market and their impact on energy prices.

MERA assessed the combined effect of the movement of the FOB prices and exchange rate of the Malawi Kwacha to the US Dollar as well as changes in local factors that determine the maximum pump prices and noted that the landed cost of Petrol, diesel and paraffin increased by 15.35%, 23.51% and 23.28%, respectively.

The change in the landed costs for all the three products is beyond the ±5% trigger limit which qualifies petrol, diesel and paraffin for an upward pump price adjustment.

The MERA Board, however, resolved to maintain pump prices for all the three products and apply the accumulated funds in the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) to cover the increased landed cost of the three products.

For the month of December 2017, fuel pump prices have therefore been maintained.

Petrol was 824.70 and remains 824.70
Diesel was 815.80 and remains 815.80
Paraffin was 648.70 and remains 648.70

Prices were also maintained for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Jet A-1 fuel.
The information above is contained in a press release signed by MERA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Collins Magalasi dated 08th December 2017

Magalas in the press release said all operators are required to sell petroleum products at prices not exceeding these maximum pump prices.