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02/11
Malawi Fuel Crisis on Currency Shortage, Minister Says
“The situation is pathetic,” Kandodo said in parliament in the capital, Lilongwe, yesterday. “We have inconvenienced the public and the economy is affected.”
Importers are demanding cash payments because Petroleum Importers Ltd. hasn’t repaid all debts from deliveries made on credit, Grain Malunga, the minister of energy, said on Capital Radio yesterday.
The southern African nation’s yearlong fuel shortage has worsened, with motorists being forced to buy gasoline on the black market for 700 kwacha ($4.64) a liter, more than double the official price, the Nation newspaper reported yesterday. The government plans to establish a national oil company to manage oil stocks.
The fuel crisis was exacerbated by structural reforms recommended by the international monetary agencies that commercial banks give out foreign currency and not the central bank, Malunga said.
“Commercial banks are not prioritizing the importation of fuel,” he said.
Earnings from tobacco sales should be deposited at the central bank and not at commercial banks, Kandodo said. Malawi’s annual fuel bill is $300 million, Kandodo said.
Malawi earns 60 percent of its foreign exchange from tobacco sales, which generated $410.6 million last year, according to the Tobacco Control Commission.