Free Market is the solution for this Islands Probem

For three consecutive days, Zanzibar has been facing petrol shortage that has affected many social and economic activities in the Isles. A survey conducted by The Guardian has discovered that the shortage started on Friday resulting in the shooting up of price of the commodity, which now sells at 4000/- per litre at filing stations. The survey was done at Kijangwani, Mikunguni and Mwanakwerekwe filling stations. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economy Khamis Mussa confirming the shortage said it was due to delays in reaching into agreement on whether to raise the prices of oil or not as requested by oil supplying firms in the Isles. “Our discussion on prices changes between the government and the oil supplying companies is behind all this shortage. But we have arrived into conclusion and the new price will be 2220/- per litre up the previous price of 2050/- per litre,” Mussa said. He said owners of the oil companies in Zanzibar recommended that oil prices be increased due to price changes in the world market. While the situation was worsening at the weekend,middlemen continued to reap money from the high prices of petrol. Mussa Haji Sadifa, one of the youths at Kijangwani filling station said that they buy oil from big filling stations and sell it at between 3500/- and 4000/- per litre. “We sell at that price due to inconveniences we encounter when we buy the fuel … we just doing this to help wananchi because some are sick and others cannot do this in themselves,” Sadifa said. For their part, interviewed people said that they have been disappointed by the by the government failure to issue any report in the past three days on the worsening situation despite having officers entrusted with the power to overseer oil matters. Tausi Omari (30), a resident of Kiembesamaki said that it was sad to see that people go without oil while there were few traders who get the fuel from filling stations and sell it at very high prices and the government has not taken any action. “The government is silence, it has failed to inform wananchi the source of the problem, and we queue at the filling stations but we don’t get oil instead we only see middlemen selling fuel at high prices,” Tausi said. However the Zanzibar Revenue Board through its manager for taxpayer services, Safia Is-haqa said that oil sector contributes 2.67bn/- to the government revenue a month. He however said that ZRB’s responsibility is only to collect taxes and the responsibility of setting prices is entrusted in the Ministry of Finance and Economy. The oil crisis has also affected the tourism sector as many vehicles are compelled to queue for oil at filling stations causing embarassment to tourists visiting Zanzibar. Shortage of oil has been common in Zanzibar especially when oil companies want to increase prices thus causing inconveniences to wananchi.