BUSINESS: Kerosene consumers to pay more

Leah Wanjiru

Even as consumers are forced to dig deeper to meet the increased cost of living, it is emerging that the situation could have been more dire for low income earners had the National Treasury not resisted the pressure to increase taxes on kerosene.The government’s decision to impose additional taxes on basic commodities has hit most Kenyans hard.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has been pushing the National Treasury to increase taxes on kerosene.The regulator says this would compel consumers to abandon the cheap but dirty fuel for cooking gas.More than 50 per cent of Kenyans use kerosene to light or cook as it is cheaper compared to other forms of energy such as electricity and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), commonly referred to as cooking gas.“We have been advocating for an increase in the surcharge of kerosene to be at par with diesel.Ultimately, the best goal is to shift usage from a dirty fuel to a cleaner fuel,” said ERC director general Joseph Nga’ng’a in an interview with Smart Company.

ERC also thinks that if kerosene is taxed, it will discourage fuel adulteration, a practice where unscrupulous fuel sellers mix kerosene with diesel, in order to take advantage of the low prices of the product to earn a windfall from unsuspecting motorists.