Fuel Retailers Association says the delay and confusion around the latest fuel price announcemen t has cost retailers. This after the Department of Mineral and Petroleum released the statement late in the evening on Tuesday with the implementation of the new price adjustment deferred to Thursday.
The confusion comes as many service stations thought the price adjustments were in effect on Wednesday as per usual. However, this was not the case and this has led to retailers short-changing themselves.
The Department of Minerals and Petroleum releases fuel price adjustment statement on a monthly basis. These price adjustments are effective every first Wednesday of the month. But theres been regular delays in the past few years in releasing the statement.
But this has never affected the day that all price adjustments must be effective. The latest incident brought about confusion to many retailers. This is because some retailers adjusted the pumps on Wednesday midnight as per normal.
"There was an unfortunate incident in that there was a press release, it was an official document. And that document actually stated that. The price change would be affected on the 3rd. So, because of the panic, that document got really fast tracked in terms of its circulation in the industry. So, as we speak, I think retailers who got it then had to at some point set up the pump prices or leave the information with the people that do the pump price administration at night. And those people only had that document. And thats how then some service stations ended up selling, you know at discounted price. If I may say, or a price reflecting a decrease because theyve got that document. And this is a huge loss to those retailers," says Fuel Retailers Association CEO Reggie Sibiya.
