By GIDEON NYENDWA
REVIEWING the prices of fuel monthly as announced by the Energy Regulation Board will bring total confusion in the transport sector because the country’s economy is not stable and will translate to having fluctuating prices of fuel and other commodities every month.
Commuters Rights Association of Zambia (CRAZ) president Aaron Kamuti said that if what ERB announced comes to fruition in this unstable economy, there would be confusion in the transport sector on which prices to settle for.
Mr Kamuti said once prices of commodities go up it is always difficult for them to come down even in an event where the economy stabilises.
Yesterday, ERB indicated that it would start reviewing fuel prices on a monthly basis starting from this month.
He said that even if fuel prices could come down today it could be a big issue with the transport operators for them to just bring down the prices of bus fares.
“It can be total chaos,” he said.
Mr Kamuti said that it would always be difficult for bus fares to go down whenever there would be a reduction in the prices of fuel without government intervention.
He also said that having fluctuating prices of fuel was not only going to sit well with the public transport operators but also the passengers could be subjected to the ever changing prices.
Mr Kamuti also said that with the free market economy it was going to be difficult even for the government to put in mechanisms for controlling the prices of commodities whenever there was a change in the prices of fuel.
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