MY TAKE ON THE REMOVAL OF SUBSIDIES ON FUEL AND INCREASE IN RETAIL FUEL PUMP PRICES
I have been hesitant to comment on this issue until I did some research on it so that i speak authoritatively.
Without doubt, the so called the poor are at the centre of this debate and will form the political grass that suffers when political elephants are fighting and outwitting each other.
For the sake of those with poor memories, this issue of removing fuel subsidies and increase in fuel pump prices was heavily debated in parliament in 2013 by both the UPND in opposition and PF in power.
The Minister of Energy then, Christopher Yaluma presented a comprehensive Ministerial Statement in which he solidly justified the removal of subsidies on fuel and the attendant increases in fuel pump prices in the country including the effects on the “poor”.
When asked to define who the poor were by Dundumwezi MP Edgar Sing’ombe, Yaluma defined the poor as Sing’ombe’s grandmother and his (Yaluma) grandmother in Malole,
Perhaps this is where we miss the point in this debate. We don’t know who the poor are to benefit from such measures in the long term.
In this debate, the PF MPs and Ministers who included Given Lubinda, Chishimba Kambwili, Robert Sichinga, Yaluma himself among others strongly defended the removal of subsidies on fuel and justified the increment in retail fuel pump prices promising that in the long term, the benefits to the poor would be accrued.
However, 7 years down the governance lane under the PF, the cost of retail fuel pump prices have never decreased but increased despite the removal of subsidies and the promise of cheaper fuel in long term.
May be there is need to also define this long term being referred to by politicians.
In the 7 years the poor have never benefited from the promise of “cheap fuel in the long run” and an attempt to deliver cheap fuel at K5 per litre through the Saudi Arabia fuel deal never worked and deal disappeared in thin air.
Instead, the rich in government and outside have continued to benefit for 7 years until their electoral defeat in 2021 elections.
Note that this removal of fuel subsidies in 2013 which spurred increment in fuel prices was not triggered by the IMF deal as is the case this time in 2021 but the realisation by the government then that subsidies were a huge cost on government treasury and unsustainable in the long run.
The money to have been saved from the removal of subsidies on fuel was supposed to have built roads through National Roads Fund (NRF), employ teachers, health workers among others and build strategic fuel reservoirs in all the 10 provinces and either revamp Indeni or build a new refinery.
The reality is there for all of us to gaze and testify to.
To the contrary, the UPND MPs in opposition vehemently defended the plight of the poor and strongly condemned the increment citing more hardships to the already suffering majority poor and the rural comprising 61% of the population.
With election upsets ocassioned on August 12, 2021 Which saw UPND wrestle power democratically from PF now in opposition, today, the PF, which include those ministers and MPs who strongly defended the removal and increments in fuel pump prices, is strongly condemning the removal of subsides and the increment in fuel pump prices claiming it will devastating effects on and harm the poor.
To the contrary, the defenders of the poor in opposition then, the UPND, now in power, argue that the poor will benefit in the long term So the removal is okay and justified, the same position advanced by PF in power.
They have cited almost the same reasons cited by their predecessors when they removed the same subsidies in 2013 spurring fuel pump prices hike.
The question is, are we ever going to have cheap fuel in Zambia?
“Are we moving or stationary on this issue fuel prices? Are the removal of these subsidies on fuel that spurs fuel price hike ever going reach us to a place or time where fuel is cheap since the causes for the removal seem to be the same?
Will the poor truly going benefit from this removal of subsidies before Jesus come or after?
Or it is politics as usual not necessarily economics or interest for the poor AND for the next 10 years, fuel pump prices are unlikely to be lower?
With the new administration in 2021 just as it were with the new administration in 2013, fate is in time.
Time will soon help us to find out the truth around this issue of subsidy removal on fuel and further help us appreciate or not appreciate the removal of subsidies policies with the associated sacrifices and the benefits in the long term for the poor
I submit
McDonald Chipenzi