Petrol, diesel prices increase today to 663, 613 CFA per litre

The government has announced increases in the prizes of some hydrocarbon products in the country with effect of today July 1, 2014.

In a Prime ministerial decree read over state radio last night, the prize of petrol popularly known as supper will increase by 85 CFAF while that of Diesel has been increased by 80 CFAF and domestic cooking gas by 500 CFAF.



A litre of Patrol in Douala and Yaounde, as from today sells at 650F up from 565F, a litre of Diesel at 600F from 520F, and 12.5 litre of domestic gas at 6500F from 6000F in these towns and their surrounding areas. In Bamenda the prize per litre pass from 578F to 663F for petrol and from 530F to 610F for diesel while cooking gas that sells at the unofficial prize of 7000F and 7500F is some places is expected to increase by 500 Frs.



The prize of kerosene remains unchanged at 350F in zone I, and at 360F in Bamenda. Petrol for instances sells in far off places like Nkambe, Mamfe, Wum and Kumbo at between 590F to 593F/litre.



Though the new prizes are yet to take effect in the Northwest region, the communiqué read over CRTV says the new prizes become applicable as from today.

It’s the first time since January 2008 that the prizes of hydrocarbon products in the country have witnessed an increase in prize.



The government says the new increase is due to the increasing prize of crude oil in the international market and to reduce the huge subvention to the sector by the state. A total of 1200 billion FCFA has been invested in the sector as government subvention since 2008, while a staggering 157 billion FCFA has been pumped in as subvention into the sector since January this year.



The government according to CRTV intends to channel this money into other social and economic activities. Other measure it says has been put in place to accompany this prize increase which includes a 50% reduction in the withholding tax, the parking fee and axle tax. The government also says there are study underway to raise the purchasing power of the population through an increase in salaries.



It was a similar rise in fuel prizes in 2008 that sparked the February 2008 Food Riots in Cameroon. The recent increase is coming barely days after the president and wife took part in an AU summit on Food security in Africa in Malabo Equatorial Guinea last week.