Price of diesel increases

By Lamin Jahateh, The Gambian Banker, Banjul The pump price, per liter, of diesel has increased with effect from today 10th December 2010, from D33 to D35, a news release from the Ministry of Finance revealed. The news release, which was issued on Thursday, stated that the increased has been necessitated by the global price of fuel which has been on the rise throughout the year.  “Consequently the government has been subsidizing the price of diesel,” it indicated. It could be recalled that the prices of both petrol and diesel were increased in May 2010 to reflect the rising price of the fuel in the world market.  However the increase in the price of diesel was much lower “thereby making the price of diesel much lower than the real world market price,” the release stated. The release further stated that the price increase is limited to diesel only and the price of petrol remains the same.  It further states that the Ministry of Finance will continue to monitor developments in both the international and domestic markets and will review the price situation when the need arises. In 2008, the pump prices of Super Petrol, Gas Oil (diesel) and Kerosene were increased.  The prices were increased as follows; Super Petrol from D30.00 to D33.00 per liter; Gas Oil from D28.00 to D32.00 per liter and Kerosene from D21.00 to D26.00. However the prices of diesel and petrol were further increased in June this year.  The price per liter of diesel was increase from D32 to D33 and petrol from D33 to D38. As speculation where high that the increment of diesel to from D32 to D33 would increase transport fares, the Vice of The Gambia, Dr. Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy has said the increment of D1 should not affect mass transport fares. Now, for the fact that diesel is more related to mass transport so the current increment of D2 (from D33 to D35) many people believe would reflect in the mass transport tariff since more vehicles use diesel than petrol.