Cooking gas prices have dropped for the first time since March, offering further reprieve to homes enjoying falling food prices.
Refilling
a 13-kilogramme cylinder stood at an average 2,073 in July, down from
Sh2,112 a month earlier, where it had touched the highest level this
year.
July’s drop is the first since March when it has
been increasing monthly from an eight-year low of Sh1,976 in February,
to breach the Sh2,000-mark, piling fresh pressure on homes, the Kenya
National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows.
The
prices tanked below Sh2,000 last year July after the Treasury scrapped
value added tax (VAT) on cooking gas to cut costs and boost uptake among
poor households.
This made the commodity one of the
few bright spots more recently in a tough economy characterised by
rising food and fuel prices.
But it rose again past
Sh2,000 for a 13-kg cylinder in April, maintaining an upward trajectory
in the months that followed before dropping in July.
Unlike
petrol, diesel and kerosene, cooking gas prices are not regulated by
the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and have been left to market
forces.
Gas has become the preferred energy source for
households, especially in major towns, due to its convenience and
because it is cleaner than other cooking fuel.
The VAT
removal on gas was part of the government’s plan to wean rural homes off
reliance on toxic firewood, kerosene and charcoal.
Oil
marketers have, however, been pushing for more rigorous checks on
unlicensed gas operators, whom they accuse of undercutting the market
through irregular refilling.
Through the Petroleum
Institute of East Africa, the marketers claim that over half of gas
cylinders in the market are illegally refilled, posing danger to users.
This
most recently saw Ministry of Energy officials impose a ban on cheaper
gas imports from Tanzania through land border due to failure to meet
safety standards.
Kenya has since lifted the ban after signing mutual trade agreements with Tanzania.
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