Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo says policing alone will not curb rampant fuel smuggling in the northern part of the country for as long as local pricing remains high.
This comes as there have been prevalent incidents of fuel smuggling from Angola into Namibia which is then resold to the black market across the northern regions for the past two years.
“The long-term solution, is only if one day we are able to have the fuel price in more or less the same range with Angola, other than that it is quite difficult to contain, hence cannot be resolved through policing alone,” stressed Alweendo, as he responded to The Brief when queried on what measures are devised and deployed to minimise fuel smuggling.
In recent years, many service station operators have complained about the competition they get from the cheap fuel from Angola which is threatening the survival of their businesses.
Many have turned to smuggling as they feel fuel is very expensive locally as opposed to the oil-rich Angola where it is cheap, estimated to cost N$10 per litre, as opposed to over N$20 a litre pump price in Namibia.
As a result, many northern service stations are running out of business, with some closing down if not reducing the workforce.
“Angola’s fuel is not necessarily cheap per se, we buy from the same international market. The only difference making it cheaper is because their fuel is heavily subsidised by government, and not because they produce oil and so forth,” Alweendo said as he addressed media questions during a stakeholders’ engagement with Angolan dignitaries led by Dr Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas.
Last year, Alweendo said fuel prices were quite high in Namibia due to various levies. The levies include the Road Fund Administration charging N$1.36/litre, the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund N$0.47/litre, the Namibia Petroleum Corporation N$3.8/litre and the National Energy Fund levy of N$0.98/litre, amongst others.
The lack of a delineated border fence between Namibia and Angola was found to make it difficult for law enforcement to control fuel smuggling from Angola, while traditional homesteads near the borderline in both countries are used as storage of the smuggled fuel, with taxis as the primary consumers.
Namibia, according to data from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, consumes 90 million litres of fuel per month on average, with 60 million litres of diesel and 30 million litres of petrol.
