The Petroleum Pricing Committee replaces the APM

No further pressure generated monthly by the APM regularly defamed in the media and the people concerned. Instead of it now the Petroleum Pricing Committee (PPC) will sit on at least once each four months to review the prices of petrol and diesel if they need to growth. This independent committee will be headed by the Director of the Statistics Office and will include many specialists.

Showkutally Soodhun, Minister of Industry and Commerce, stressed out in his speech the need for such a mechanism. “This new mechanism will be more easily understood and better accepted by all. The committee will have full opportunity to check all the documents and the truthfulness of the figures and thus ensure that all parameters were taken into account. The decision of the PPC will be totally transparent and everything will be published on the website of the State Trading Corporation. There will be full details of all elements that come into play in accounting for the fuel prices.”

Monitoring Committee will be established at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for the monitoring the situation daily and data on oil prices will be available on the ministry website.

The State Law Office is already working on new regulations and after the work done, the Committee will be established. However the Minister of Industry and Trade recalled that there are two out of control factors - the price of a barrel on the international market and the exchange rate of U.S. dollar.

“This new mechanism will keep the price unchanged as long as possible unless we noted the major fluctuations of oil prices on the international market and the exchange rate. I ask consumers to draw their own conclusions from that test has already done. Oil prices have risen for some time on the world market but the last four months, we maintained the same price,” concluded Showkutally Soodhun.