By NAMO PHIRI
THE monthly review of fuel prices has killed many small businesses and government needs to consider reverting to the quarterly method of review, Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA) Executive Secretary, Juba Sakala, has said.
Mr Sakala said this was because the small businesses were finding it difficult to plan for their businesses because of the instability in the fuel prices.
He said there were many small businesses that had died out from the time the government started the monthly review of the fuel prices.
“These people are unable to plan, a lot of them say they normally plan for three months which has now become very hard to do since the prices of fuel keep changing every month,” said Mr Sakala
Mr Sakala said in an interview that it was unfortunate the government had become comfortable around the issue when there are a lot of people who are being negatively affected by their decision.
He said most people plan their businesses quarterly and the fact that fuel prices change every month has had a huge impact especially on those in the transport sector.
Mr Sakala said the government needed to understand that the system had failed and put a stop to it before the situation gets worse because they had said that the monthly review would begin as a pilot project.
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