Fuel Marking Scheme Boosts Mozambique’s Tax Revenue

In a few months’ time, the current contract for the fuel marking scheme in Mozambique will reach expiry, but it seems likely that the country will choose to continue the scheme, given the positive impact it has had on tax revenues, reports the pan-African news platform The African Exponent.

Fuel products represent about 10% of Mozambique’s total state revenue, making them a vital part of the country’s budget. However, the smuggling and adulteration of fuel products have long been major issues that have drained the country’s coffers.

Indeed, a pilot study implemented in 2013 at the Port of Beira (one of the largest ports in Mozambique which acts as a gateway for the central interior of the country as well as its land-locked neighbours), was able to prove that cheaper hydrocarbons such as kerosene were being used to adulterate diesel fuel and that the country was losing $40-$64.5 million per year to high levels of fuel in transit sold in the domestic market.