In order to maintain unchanged the prices of petroleum products at the pump during the year 2022, in an international context marked by the rise in the prices of crude oil and freight, the Cameroonian government should guarantee a consumer subsidy envelope of more than 780 billion.
This new figure was revealed by the Director General of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance, Sylvester Moh, in an interview with Cameroon Tribune, the daily newspaper.
This projected envelope exceeds not only the 480 billion francs provided for this purpose in the collective budget decided by the Head of State and validated by Parliament in June 2022, but also the 672 billion francs projected by the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, during a press conference held on March 30, 2022 in Yaounde.
The overrun of the initial budgetary envelope reserved for the subsidy of petroleum products at the pump was predictable. In fact, in a communiqué made public on July 11, 2022 by the Minister of Water and Energy , Gaston Eloundou Essomba, while the fuel shortage was in full swing in the country, this member of government reveals that the subsidy of petroleum products has cost 317 billion francs to the Treasury in the first half of 2022
This corresponds to an average of 52.8 billion francs per month, or 634 billion francs over 12 months, not taking into account that in June 2022, for example, this subsidy peaked at 80 billion francs, according to the Minwe figures. Not only does the new figure put forward by the Director General of the Treasury exceed all the official figures announced so far, but above all it reinforces the thesis that this subsidy is unsustainable for the public treasury in the medium and even short term, as the recent fuel shortage that shook the country can testify.
“It should be noted that these disruptions are mainly due to the large envelope of the pump price subsidy that must be mobilised in real time to ensure the import of petroleum products,” explained the Minister of Water and Energy on 11 July 2022, to justify the scarcity of fuel in the major cities of Cameroon.
JDC TV, Video news 
