MERA announces 40% increase in gas sales

Malawians have been encouraged by government to adopt the idea of using gas for household chores as opposed to charcoal.

In the same vein, government has for the past two years not collected Value Added Tax (VAT) on cooking gas and cylinders as a way of encouraging Malawians to use gas in their homes as a source of energy. Companies have therefore offered low prices on these products.

The Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) sector continues to attract the private sector at a fast rate as gas sales in the country have increased to 40% between February and June this year.

This was disclosed by Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) at a Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) Retailers Sensitisation Meeting in Mzuzu.

MERA Public Relations Manager, Fitina Khonje, said currently MERA is engaging different stakeholders in order to increase gas selling outlets across the nation.

“We have reduced the cost of gas at retail. People will now be spending less when they want to venture into this business. We had established 1,000,600 Kilogrammes per year and now we are aiming for about 4.8 million Kilogrammes per year in three years’ time. We are so confident that we will get to that,” explained Khonje.

Chigomegzo Gondwe, a retailer in the petroleum sector, said people were beginning to understand the importance of using gas in their households and subsidising the commodity was a way to go.

“If government really wants to ensure that as many as possible households in Malawi are able to afford and use gas, then one of those measures they need to employ is to subsidise the gas equipment like cylinders and other accessories,” said Gondwe.

Meanwhile, MERA is developing an LPG installer curriculum with TEVETA so that gas installers are well trained as Malawi continues to embrace the use of gas.

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