The Ministry of Mines and Energy has, since March 2023, ceased allocating the fuel levy to the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR).
NAMCOR’s Manager of Marketing, Communication, and Public Relations, Paulo Coelho, confirmed the development, saying the company has not received the proceeds since then.
However, he revealed that an appeal was made for the current financial year, and the Ministry has agreed to pay for the remainder of the strategic year, concluding in March 2024.
Despite the agreement, as of now, NAMCOR has not yet received the fuel levy. Coelho indicated that the Ministry may revoke the fuel levy again next year.
“They may revoke it next year again. And we need to completely get off or wean off the fuel levy and learn to be self-sustainable, which was the whole point of getting into the strategic retail space,” he said.
NAMCOR’s initial fuel levy was pegged at 7.6 cents per litre of fuel sold in Namibia.
In lieu of this levy, NAMCOR has implemented a practical alternative income source through retail outlets across the country with 16 operational and three under development.
He thus emphasised the necessity for NAMCOR to become self-sustainable and gradually detach from reliance on the fuel levy and this aligns with the original intent of entering the strategic retail space.
In terms of the possible impact, he noted that, “you have to remember that NAMCOR upstream is going to dwarf downstream. This will only impact the downstream side of things. It’s not going to impact the upstream section in the upstream business, which is very profitable and lucrative.”
NAMCOR ventured into the Namibian fuel retail sector in August 2019 with the opening of its first branded site at the Hosea Kutako International Airport.
Namibia, according to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, then consumed 90 million litres of fuel per month on average – 60 million litres of diesel and 30 million litres of petrol.
The country’s fuel retail sector is currently dominated by the likes of Puma, Shell, Engine and Total.
NAMCOR reported a net loss of N$700 million, according to unaudited financial statements as of 31 March 2023.
