Abass Tasunti, Head of Economic Regulation at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) said the current name gives the public a wrong impression of what the levy does.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM on Thursday, April 18, Abass Tasunti told Bernard Avle that the NPA is requesting the name change because it is impossible to stabilise the price due to external forces such as exchange rates.

“We have requested the government that the name of the levy should be changed because price cannot be stabilised as long as it is exposed to external forces like exchange rates and so the recommendation is that we should change the name of the levy to reflect its use because there is no way you can stabilise prices.

“The only way you can stabilise price is to subsidize it and pay for the subsidy and so we have asked that the name be looked at so that the name can reflect the real purpose.”

Abass Tasunti also spoke about the factors accounting for the hikes in the prices of petroleum products in recent times.

He attributed the hikes to “taxes, levies and margins which have remained the same but then the price of crude on the international market has changed and this is purely attributed to the international market forces and the exchange rates.”