Herald Reporter
FUEL prices have gone up by around six cents per litre for both petrol and diesel. The surge has been attributed to the hike in excise duty by Finance Minister Tendai Biti when he presented the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy statement last month. Minister Biti raised the excise duty from 16 and 20 cents per litre for diesel and petrol respectively to 20 and 25 cents for the products with effect from this month. The price of petrol ranged from US$1,48 to US$1,55 depending on the service station yesterday.
The price of diesel was around US$1,42 at most service stations.
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce chairper­son, Cde William Mutomba, said the latest surge in fuel price would adversely affect industry.
He said most of the industries heavily depended on fuel to power their generators owing to constant power outages.
“The effect of the fuel price on con­sumers is that industry would pass on the costs to the end users because no rational businessperson would absorb those costs,” said Cde Mutomba, who is also Buhera North MP (Zanu-PF).
The fuel price increase is also expected to cause monthly inflationary pressures on the economy.
The hike in the fuel excise duty was expected to raise an additional US$20 million.