The government has alleged that the prices of fuel have not gone up and asked private dealers to stop cheating consumers.
Officials from the Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc), the government agency solely responsible for importing all fuel products, yesterday insisted that they are not responsible for the increasing fuel prices on different pump stations of two giant private dealers, Shell and TotalEnergies.
“The fuel prices went down tremendously and have been stable since Unoc began sole importation. At the time of the takeover, the prices of petrol were between Shs5,000 and Shs5300, but since then the majority of oil companies have kept it at between Shs4,990 and Shs5,000, and between Shs4300 and Shs4700 for diesel,” an official from Unoc said on condition of anonymity (because they are not authorised to speak to the media)
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Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc) Chief Corporate Officer Tony Otoa said all private dealers have been buying petroleum products from Unoc at the same price since last July, when they started importing them.
“Those private dealers should provide you with the prices they buy from us. If there are changes, then you can get back to us, but as I said yesterday, nothing has changed on our side,” he defended his side.
When reached out to, the spokesperson for Vivo Energy referred this publication to the Energy Ministry. Vivo Energy is the licensed distributor of Shell products in Uganda.
This fuel increment development comes days after Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa told reporters in Kampala that the government wants to lower fuel prices further to at least one dollar (about Shs3,670).
“I did my calculations and realised that even when you [private dealers] reduce the price of a litre to one dollar, you still make profits,” she said on January 2.
The government enacted the Petroleum Supply (Amendment) Act of 2023, which empowered Unoc to take over the importation of all petroleum products and later sell them to all dealers.
UNOC later imported its first purchase of 170 million litres of fuel.
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