ERB encouraged to revert to quarterly reviews

THE Energy Regulation Board (ERB) should find another mechanism that will encourage a quarterly review of fuel price because monthly reviews affect costing, Millers Association of Zambia president Andrew Chintala has said.

Mr Chintala said the quarterly system makes it easier to plan because the monthly review of fuel has affected a lot of things for business, especially the planning part.

He also appealed to ERB to quickly find practical solutions that could bring stability in terms of costing and have a predictable market and price mechanism of other products throughout the value chain.

Mr Chintala said the monthly review of fuel prices had affected the millers a great deal because they could no longer plan ahead because they were only responding to the reaction in terms of what was happening in the petroleum industry.

He said a quarterly system would encourage stability and growth especially for those in the manufacturing industry because they depend largely on diesel.

And Mr Chintala also said they were confident as an association that the price of mealie meal may reduce with the commencement of the marketing season.

He said because of what the Food Reserve Agency had in reserves they were not expected to buy as much as they do because they have sufficient stock and the millers will take advantage of this fact and buy as much as possible.

He said the continued engagement between the millers and government had enabled the prices of mealie meal drop a bit and remained stable for the last three months.