THE Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) is warning public transport operators not to increase fares nor shorten their allocated routes after the fuel price was resolved yesteday.
ICCC chief executive officer, Commissioner Roy Daggy warned that non-compliance would result in penalties under the Prices Regulation Act.
“Government is releasing K100 million of the K1 billion relief package to assist the fuel importers,” he said.
“That should absorb the increased cost of April 8 and reduce fuel prices back to March levels.”
On the impact of fuel on people and businesses, he said: “Fuel is what drives the economy, especially in this day and age where we depend on fuel for everyday activity. The fuel subsidy at the import price covers everyone, including businesses.”
Daggy urged fuel importers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers to comply with the price reset effective from today.
“The ICCC, Customs, IRC (Internal Revenue Commission), Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG), and Treasury will conduct compliance and monitoring to ensure that the relief assistance trickles down to the customer at service stations,” he said.
“The ICCC will conduct inspections and take appropriate enforcement action against any individual or business found to be non-compliant.”
Under the fuel relief assistance, fuel importers will source fuel at international market prices and sell domestically to the service stations and contracted customers using the March prices.
The relief funding of K100 million will cover the difference.
The K1 billion fuel relief package is for six months.
According to Daggy, the relief execution mechanism will ensure that fuel importers, including Puma Energy, Mobil Oil New Guinea Limited, ExxonMobil (Mobil), Islands Petroleum, and Ok Tedi Mining Limited will submit pro-forma invoices and price differentials to be confirmed by BPNG, Customs, Treasury, IRC and the ICCC.
Once verified, the importer proceeds to the point of import, which is BPNG, and present the verified pro-forma invoice and price differential to claim the subsidy amount, excluding all the taxes.
