The Ministry of Mines and Energy has slashed petrol prices by N$1.00, but increased the Road Fund Administration (RFA) road user charges and the MVA Fund levy to their previous levels.
This was after the RFA and the MVA Fund had warned that the government’s fuel price relief measures introduced in May would hurt their operations. The government slashed the RFA’s Road User Charge from 148 cents to 74 cents, while the MVA Fund levy was cut to 37.725 cents from 47.7 cents to help motorists with low fuel prices.
“The Ministry has also resolved to reinstate the road user charges and the MVA levy back to their original levels, while the NAMCOR levy will remain at its current level until further notice,” the Ministry of Mines and Energy revealed on Monday.
The MVA Fund blamed the levy cut for delaying its plans to establish a multimillion-dollar trauma centre, which will have an initial capacity of 92 beds, and is expected to be realised through internal and external funding.
On the other hand, the RFA had warned that the extension of the levy cuts will force the parastatal to terminate road maintenance contracts because it will no longer afford contractors.
However, despite introducing the new measures, the Energy ministry left the NAMCOR levy unchanged as the government is planning to cancel the charge advanced to state-owned entities.
NAMCOR used to receive 7.6 cents for every litre of fuel sold in the country, but the figure was later slashed to 3.8 cents under the government’s fuel price relief measures aimed at containing a spike in fuel prices.
Meanwhile, the Mines and Energy ministry has announced that the petrol price for October 2022 will decrease by N$1.00, while diesel prices will remain unchanged, effective on Wednesday (5 October 2022), citing an over-recovery on petrol of 234 cents a litre and under-recovery of diesel of 33 cents per litre.
