To keep demand in check, fuel retailers hike prices.

Fuel price increases in Uganda have been attributed to the necessity to restrict existing fuel inventories rather than profiteering.

Fuel costs have been growing substantially since late last year, but they have climbed even more sharply since the beginning of this month, by up to 1,300 shillings per litre. By Saturday, fuel prices had risen to 5,700 shillings per litre in some parts of Kampala, and diesel prices had risen to 4,400 shillings per litre in others.

Truck drivers at the Malaba and Busia border posts parked their trucks in protest of new Covid-19 testing criteria, causing a supply bottleneck. They were switched around last week, and by Wednesday, the drivers were getting tested for free.

The Ministry of Energy noted in a statement released on Friday that demand for petroleum had been rising even before the truckers’ strike.
According to the statement, this was owing to the fact that the economy was improving, and increased activity meant increased demand for petroleum goods.

The cargo scanners at the Malaba border-post fell down on Saturday, but the system was restored by Sunday morning, according to the Uganda Revenue Authority.

After a technical issue that prompted public anxiety yesterday, the Malaba cargo scanner is again up and functioning. “While the Malaba team worked tirelessly to bring the stationed scanner online and operational, a mobile scanner was temporarily deployed,” stated Ibrahim Bbosa, URA’s Head of Public and Corporate Affairs.

URA claims to have removed nearly 200 vehicles by Saturday evening, with 82 of them at Busia alone.

Fuel stations began to run dry as a result of the near-halt in supply, resulting in the high pricing.

TotalEnergies Nakulabye station manager Fred Nairongo says he doesn’t know when they’ll get their next delivery and that he expects to run out of supply later on Sunday.

However, he believes that the situation would improve by the end of this week provided

Denis Acuka, the Manager of Rubis Nakulabye, on the other hand, claims that scarcity is driven by a variety of circumstances, some of which are beyond Uganda’s control. He claims that supplies from Kenya was already slow before to the strike due to a slowdown in the worldwide supply chain, and that the strike is merely one of the reasons.

All queries were sent to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development by Vivo Energy Uganda’s spokesperson, Val Oketcho, who refused to respond or answer calls.

When asked why the price was increased when there was a scarcity, both station managers claimed it was to curb the rush for the products.

According to Denis Acuka of Rubis, a direction came from their central office to raise prices when daily demand increased from 3,000 to 4,000 litres, in order to discourage demand and disburse supply in smaller proportions per day.

According to him, this was done to prevent the stations from becoming depleted.

Nairongo claims that his sales have increased in the last several days, rather than declining, because his colleagues at other stations with reduced supply bring customers to his station.

However, some stations are having difficulty attracting customers as a result of the increased costs, and these are primarily smaller dealers who had previously maintained their products lower than the majors.

An attendant at AS Oil in Kawempe remarked that consumers aren’t coming because of the high prices, but the station can’t lower them because the supplies were delivered at a high cost.

These are companies who acquire petroleum products from other Kenyan marketers and have them delivered by transport companies.

By Sunday, several of them were quoting prices that were higher than those of the larger sellers.