By Isaac Salima:
National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) has attributed the recent scarcity of fuel to the upgrading of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) system.
This has been said a few days after motorists started scrambling for fuel again.
In the latest development, Nocma says fuel supply has been affected because the TRA system is being upgraded.
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It says, as such, trucks destined for Malawi are not being released.
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“The TRA system was on a scheduled upgrade from Friday 17/01/2025 evening. The works were expected to be completed on Sunday 19/01/2025 and the system was expected to start operating on Monday 20/01/2025 morning.
“The plan did not work as expected and this led to Nocma fuel suppliers being unable to release trucks loaded on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday,” Nocma spokesperson Raymond Likambale said.
He added that Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) officials contacted TRA officials on Monday, when they requested for a waiver to use manual declarations to release Malawi cargo.
“The waiver was issued on Wednesday 22/01/2025. Trucks were released and are currently on their way to Malawi.
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“Prior to all of the above, on January 8 2025, the Malawi Government, through MRA, requested for Special Clearance of the 51.5 million litres, based on it being an emergency procurement for Malawi. TRA is yet to respond to this request,” Likambale said.
He said they were taking additional measures of speeding up the delivery of petroleum products in Malawi.
The products are originating from Tanga Port in Tanzania.
“Malawi, through Nocma, is pooling all available trucking capacity within the sub-region (East, Central and Southern Africa). Waivers with regards to third country rule have been requested from [the Directorate of] Road Traffic [and Safety Services]. Transporters requiring an advance for a certain proportion of fees are requested to submit [a] bank guarantee,” he said
He said by adopting such measures, Nocma intended to complete the transportation of petroleum products from Tanga within 30 days.
Thursday, Information Minister-cum-government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu told The Daily Times t hat, at present, the issue is not about lack of fuel but, rather, the limited availability of certified tankers to transport it from Tanga Port in Tanzania.
“We are relying on a few transporters. These are the same ones who carried the first consignment of 51 million litres. Some are returning to bring more fuel. The queues are, to some extent, due to panic buying,” Kunkuyu said.
Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Officer Henry Kachaje concurred with Kunkuyu that fuel was available at the port.
He, however, said there were challenges in transporting the 51 million litres of fuel that were procured in December 2024 because it had to be transported into the country.
He said the consignment arrived on December 29 2024 through the port of Tanga in Tanzania.
“The real challenge at the moment is logistics. We need a minimum of 80 trucks loading daily.
“Unfortunately, during the first two weeks of operations, only an average of 17 trucks have been loading [fuel] per day,” Kachaje said.
On his part, Fuel Transporters Association Secretary Mwiza Chawinga said the challenge was that the majority of transporters were using the Beira route in Mozambique.
“We have over 1,000 tankers in Malawi, of which the majority were allocated the Mozambique corridors. So, some are now changing the paperwork to start using the northern corridor.
‘However, in the northern part, the Swahili take time to process the paperwork, which is also making other delays,” Chawinga said.
