MPs must find a way of making gas affordable

Members of the National Assembly should act to cushion Kenyans from rising costs of utilities like cooking gas.

A persistent surge in the global prices of cooking gas points to more inflationary pain for Kenyan households already grappling with higher bills for other fuels such as petrol.

The prices of butane and propane — the by-products of crude oil used in the manufacture of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) — have risen in the past months on increased demand but low supply in the Gulf countries, which are Kenya’s main source markets of cooking gas.

While rising energy prices is a global challenge facing many countries, including Britain, China and the US, our MPs can do more to bring down the cost of the commodity.

The impact of global price rallies is expected to be felt in Kenya in the coming weeks, adding strain on consumers who barely two months ago took a hit from the State imposing a 16 percent value-added tax on LPG, pushing the cost of cooking gas to a six-year high.

It is understandable that the government is pressed and needs to raise more taxes, but cheaper cooking gas has more benefits.

Therefore, MPs should zero rate VAT on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or reduce it to eight percent to reduce the burden. The rising costs of the commodity to unsustainable levels for most households can be blamed on the current taxation regime.

The anticipated increase in the cost of LPG is set to hurt growth in consumption of cooking gas that has more than doubled in the past five years on the removal of the 16 percent VAT.

LPG uptake more than doubled to 326,000 tonnes last year from 151,000 tonnes in 2016, highlighting the impact of removing the tax.

These are gains that should not be reversed. Policies should be in place to encourage the use of cleaner energy to also save the country from the burden of respiratory diseases.