Parliament Tightens the Screws on Petroleum Distributors

Jan 12 , 2025


  Federal legislators passed today a sweeping bill tightening licensing requirements for distributors of petroleum products and imposing stiffer penalties on violators. The authors' of the bill believe it will combat smuggling, hoarding, and fuel adulteration. The law carries prison sentences of five to seven years for those convicted of adulterating fuel, tampering with equipment, or operating without proper certification. Authorities can confiscate contraband fuel from smugglers, while distributors caught overcharging buyers risk fines ranging from 600,000 Br to one million Br; repeat offenses carry prison time. Under the new legislation, which passed with two votes against and one abstention, aspiring distributors are mandated to construct storage depots capable of holding at least half a million liter of fuel, open four service stations, and expand to 10 stations within three years. Existing distributors have five years to meet comparable benchmarks. Lawmakers also ratified a shift to mandatory digital payments along the supply chain, ending long-standing cash-based practices. During a heated debate, several MPs criticised regulators for what they described as lax oversight, pointing to unauthorised checkpoints operated by regional states that reportedly levy arbitrary fees on fuel transporters. Others called out the government for not pursuing “known participants” in illicit trade, arguing that tolerating such activities undercuts the integrity of the rules.


Radar

Coffee Exports Bring in $1.5B in Third Quarter

Ethiopia has earned 1.5 billion dollars from coffee exports over the nine months of the fiscal year. The country had set a target to earn a little over a billion dollars by exporting 201,959tns of coffee during the same period. According to Adugna Debella (PhD), director general of the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority, the export strategy continues to focus on major international markets, with the top 10 destinations, including Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the United States (SU), accounting...


Radar

Central Bank Holds Fourth Exchange Auction

The National Bank of Ethiopia(NBE) sold one dollar for 131.4961 birr in its recent auction. It was reported that 26 banks participated in this auction, which took place last week on Thursday. In a statement issued by the National Bank  following the auction, it was indicated that 70 million dollars was offered for the event. Subsequently, it was reported that 96 pc of the foreign exchange needs of the participating banks were met. In the previous auction, held 15 days ago, the bank had of...


Radar

City Registers 64,075 Births in Fiscal Year

The city has exceeded its birth registration target for the first nine months of the fiscal year, registering 64,075 children—71.15pc more than the set goal of 58,342. This success, with a registration coverage rate of 109.63pc, is largely attributed to the efficiency of the one-centre birth registration service system, which has been rolled out across health centres and courts. The total number of vital events registered, including births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths, reache...