House committee contests plan to add Sh5 leavy per liter of diesel » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 2 – The National Assembly Committee on Delegated Legislation wants a legal notice by Petroleum Cabinet Secretary John Munyes which sought to include Diesel to a list of fuel products whose levy was increased to Sh5.40, up from 40 cents a litre.

The Committee which is chaired by Tiaty MP William Kamket found that the Ministry published the Petroleum Development Levy (Amendment) Order of 2021 in May 2021, breached the law that requires that the entity conducts public participation after publication as required under the Constitution.

“The Committee recommend to the House to annul the amendment order in entirety for contravening Section 11(1) and 4 of the Statutory Instruments Act, 2013, being out of the statutory timelines set out in Section 11 and lack of demonstration of public participation,” the Committee said in a report to the House.

In their justification, the Ministry said the Order was published and approved in 2020, and it was later discovered later that Automotive Gas Oil or Diesel) had been erroneously omitted from the first schedule of the order.

The Kamket led Committee noted that the mistake by the ministry did not warrant the issuance of a different petroleum development levy order to amend the 2020 order.

“This was a error of omission on the record in a statutory instrument that ought to have been rectified through publishing a corrigendum and an amendment Order since an amendment Order invites the Commitee to subject it to all the statutory test set out in the Statutory Instruments Act, 2013 and relevant laws,” read the Commitee report.

The recommendation for the House to reject Munyes’ error came a week when another House Committee was conducting an inquiry into two petitions submitted to the National Assembly regarding the decision by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) to increase prices of petroleum and petroleum products.

Speaker of the National Justin Muturi directed the Departmental Commitee on Finance and National Planning to expedite the probe within 14 days and attach a draft bill to the report proposing legislative interventions to reverse the situation.

The matter elicited a heated debate as both the Legislators and Executive engaged in a blame game on whether there could be other reasons beyond taxation causing fuel prices to rise.

Fuel prices were reviewed upward for the first time since March after the Government discontinued a subsidy scheme introduced in April to defuse public outrage over the high cost of living.

The subsidy scheme was supported by billions of shillings raised through the Petroleum Development Levy Fund.

EPRA kept Diesel and Kerosene prices unchanged since April at Sh107.66 and Sh97.85 a litre respectively on fears an upward review could fuel public anger. Petrol had remained unchanged at Sh127.14 since June.

Petroleum Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau told probe by the House Finance Commitee that the jump in fuel prices is also partly linked to costly crude attributed to signs of demand growth as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 disruptions.