Last Friday, The Gambia government through the Ministry of Petroleum convened an emergency meeting with oil marketing companies over their withholding of oil products in the country.
The oil marketing companies frowned over the price structure for petroleum products claiming they were doing business at a loss.
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During the meeting, the Minister of Finance said the government spent 1.5 Billion on subsidies to soften the price of fuel over the past six months.
Mr Keita said the government is losing a lot of revenue in the petroleum sector due to the subsidies they were offering to prevent price hikes
“To stabilize the economy, the government can’t continue to subsidize petroleum products and our development partners have advised against such continuation” Minister Keita said.
During his controversial revised budget presentation in July, Minister Keita vowed to removed subsidies on petroleum products; which has worried many economic observers. The observers said the decision is going to increase transport fares in the country.
There is yet to be light at the end of the tunnel but certainly prices of petroleum products will increases at undesirable rates.