A city lawyer moved to court to contest government’s decision to raise cooking gas prices even higher. Lawyer Edward Asitiba filed a certificate of urgency with the Supreme Court, requesting orders prohibiting the government from raising the price of cooking gas in the country any further.
This comes after the government re-imposed the 16 percent VAT on gas that has thrown the ambitious goal of 100 per cent clean household energy access by 2028 into jeopardy.
A sudden decline, according to the lawyer, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General, KRA board of directors, Cabinet Secretary National Treasury, Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, and National Assembly Speaker, all of whom are named as respondents in the case, enacted legislation imposing a 16 percent VAT on already high-priced LPGs, effectively putting them out of reach for many Kenyans.
The Russian-Ukraine situation has contributed to gas prices in Kenya going up.
Rubis Energy Kenya revised its retail prices on Friday, raising the price of refilling a 13 kilogramme cylinder by over Sh250.
The dealer’s charge for the 13-kilogramme cylinder, according to the business, was Sh2,684 before VAT, which raised it to Sh3,113.
Consumers, on the other hand, would be able to refill the cylinder for Sh3,340 starting today.
Kenya’s LPG business is mainly controlled by big players, including Total, Vivo, Rubis, Oil Libya and Africa Gas and Oil (AGOL), which owns Pro gas.
Cooking gas prices are not controlled unlike those of petrol, diesel and kerosene.
A less expensive alternative in December 2021, the price of a kilo of charcoal scaled by around 5 per cent to Sh61.31 per kilo, while the price of a litre of kerosene jumped by 7 percent to Sh106.
The two, together with firewood, are the most cost-effective alternatives to expensive LPG.
The national average LPG usage has declined as well, from 36,000 tonnes in January to around 28, 000 tonnes in December 2021, with the price of a 13kg gas refill increasing by almost 30percent to Sh2,638.83 in December 2021.
With leading oil marketers announcing an extra Sh600 (30per cent) price rise for 13kg cylinder refills on March 7, the entire price has now jumped by a whopping 60 per cent when compared to the first quarter of 2021.
