YANGON DIVISION – Gas stations in Yangon are starting to run out of fuel again and there are queues of cars at gas stations, according to taxi drivers and car owners.
Starting around July 29 afternoon, gas stations faced shortage of Octane 92 and 95 and queues started to form at the gas stations that night. Although the cars in the queue could purchase fuel the next morning, some gas stations have reportedly limited the quota per vehicle.
“Now, we have to queue at most gas stations. Some Max stations ran out of petrol. Only diesel is available. Myatmyittarmon in Hlaing has both available but only sells 30,000 Kyats per vehicle. There are also queues at New Day on Kabaraye Road,” said a taxi driver.
As USD exchange rate jumped to over 5,300 Kyats, the junta council is unable to provide the full amount of USD needed to import fuel and also refused to match the fuel price to the rising exchange rate, matching it instead to the rate determined by them, causing troubles for the fuel importers. It is said that there are problems with issuing fuel due to import issues at Thilawa Port.
“Now, (junta) Central Bank is unable to sell USD for import of fuel. Even if you purchase the USD from an outside source to import fuel, they insist on matching the price to their determined rate. The USD exchange rate is climbing at an exorbitant rate. We just keep coming back to this issue. They are unable to sell USD. When we buy USD from outside, they set it at their low exchange rate. There could be more fuel shortage. There is insufficient supply of fuel at Thilawa,” said a fuel importer.
Currently, the junta council has set the fuel price per litre as 2,630 for Octane 92, 2,750 for Octane 95 and the fuel importers are said to be facing losses having to continue selling at those prices.
