The government could have played the wrong ball by implementing adulteration fees on kerosene in a bid to collect more revenue.
According to statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), kerosene consumption dropped by 40 per cent in one month from 24,980 metric tonnes in August to 16,800 metric tonnes in September.
Kerosene consumption has been on the drop fof five months, dropping from as high as 39,000 metric tonnes in May to 16,000 in September.
The government in August added Ksh18 per litre on kerosene prices, anticipating to collect Ksh9.8 billion from sales of kerosene as revenue. However, this might not be possible as Kenyans are shying away from the commodity.
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With the plan, the government hoped to discourage adulteration, collect more money from the sale of both diesel and kerosene and at the same time provide low-income households with a government subsidy on cylinder prices to adopt clean energy as Kenya phases out the use of kerosene for cooking.
However, the Ksh3 billion was shelved after crafty cartels hijacked the low-cost cylinders and sold them to illegal refillers.
The government later blamed manufacturers for supplying substandard cylinders under the National Oil Corporation Scheme even as a consumer lobby group took it to court.
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