Kenya has slashed pipeline tariffs by 50 per cent as it seeks to
win back oil importers from landlocked countries to its network, after
it lost the regional fuel transport market to Tanzania’s port of Dar es
Salaam.
The tariffs scheduled to be gazetted by the
Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority set the rate at $30.89 per
1,000 litres from the previous $60 for the same volume.
The three year revision will see the rates fall further fall marginally to $30.65 in 2020 and to $29.07 in 2021.
Currently,
it costs $60 per 1,000 litres of fuel that passes through the Kenyan
pipeline and a further $35 on trucks to and from destination countries,
compared with an average of $80 to move oil via Tanzania’s Central
Corridor road network to and from Dar es Salaam.
The
tariff revision is hot on the heels of an announcement by Tanzania last
week that it was forming a task force operating a One Stop Centre at the
Dar port to improve efficiency.
Works, Communications
and Transport Minister Isaack Kamwelwe said the team will bring together
at least 20 stakeholder organisations from key institutions, both
public and private, involved in cargo clearance at the port.
These include the Tanzania Port Authority, the Tanzania Revenue
Authority, Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority, Tanzania Bureau of
Standards, Tanzania International Container Terminal Services, Tanzania
Freight Forwarders Association, Tanzania Truck Owners Association and
the Dar es Salaam Corridor Group.
The announcement
brings to the fore the fierce competition for business between the two
ports as each country seeks to attract traffic to its transport
corridor.
Kenya’s Northern Corridor has long been the
preferred route by landlocked countries but recently, the Central
Corridor through Tanzania has gained favour especially with importers in
DRC and Rwanda.
In June, Finance Minister Philip
Mpango in his budget speech announced the scrapping delivery fees,
stripping fees, export fees, and container cleaning charges at the Dar
port.
The country also outlined plans to have Malawi,
the DRC and South Sudan increase their import and export cargo volumes
through Dar. South Sudan signed a bilateral agreement to at least double
its annual transit cargo volume.
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