The Confederation of Mozambican Economic Associations (CTA) proposes as a temporary measure the installation of fuel depots at public passenger transport terminals, so that private operators can fill up as a group and thus benefit from more affordable prices.

The president of CTA, Agostinho Vuma, believes that the measure may allow transporters, organized in associations, to buy fuel at the same price as the distributor, which is lower than the retail price.

"This measure, in the short term, would help minimize the negative impacts of rising fuel prices on the economy, overall, and has the added benefit of assisting in the organization and formalization of transporters," Vuma said at a press conference held a few days ago in Maputo.

Currently, the distributor's price at the storage station is 72.83 meticais a liter of diesel, compared to 78.97 meticais selling to the public, which would mean, according to Vuma, a savings of 6.14 meticais per liter.

The proposal, Vuma explained, is not intended to "discourage the retail activity of gasoline stations, as it is a temporary measure to minimize the impact of rising prices."

In the current fuel price structure, the Government decided to increase the distributor's margin from 7.75 meticais to 8.25 meticais, per liter of gasoline, diesel and oil, as a way to compensate for the losses that the gasoline companies register and recover the value that should have been compensated.

However, the same value, according to Vuma, is still lower than what would be required for this purpose. The CTA also proposes a reduction in the Value Added Tax (VAT) because it has a significant weight in the structure of the final price of fuel.