Luanda – Angolan government will provide petrol price exemption cards to agricultural cooperatives to reduce the effects of the recent rise in the price of this type of fuel, the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Livestock, João Cunha said Tuesday in Luanda.
Speaking at a meeting with religious leaders to address the reduction of fuel subsidies, the secretary of State said a process is currently underway for the registration of cooperatives to benefit from fuel subsidy cards.
The official explained that the delivery of the cards will facilitate the access to available resources to mitigate the hike in the prices of the fuel, with the aim to avoid any constraints in the availability of food to the population.
João Cunha said he considered it more viable to license the cooperatives, since, as he added, it is very difficult to work with small farmers, due to their high number, which is estimated at over 2 million families.
The new price that entered into force on June 2, sets the price of a litre of petrol at 300 kwanzas against the previous 160 kwanzas, however taxi drivers, motorbike taxi and small fishing boats are excluded from paying the amount, benefiting from a subsidy card.
The partial cut in the subsidy on the price of petrol will allow the State to save 400 billion kwanzas this year, representing a 40 percent weight in fuel subsidies.
The government said that granting subsidies on fuel prices was an economic and social measure, resulting from a combination of fiscal policy and income and prices policy backed by Presidential Decree 206/11, of 29 July, which approved the general bases for the organisation of the National Price System.
Until December 2022, market prices were recorded at 452%, 578%, 202% and 279% above the fixed prices, respectively for LPG (cooking gas), kerosene, petrol and diesel, with the total value of the subsidies during the period that goes from 2020 to 2022 reaching roughly 3.73 trillion kwanzas. .HEM/AC/Amp/jmc
