Fishing vessels in Myeik are set to benefit from loosened fuel import procedures. Pic: Myanmar Times Archives

REGULATIONS governing fuel imports are set to be loosened, the chairman of the Export and Import Supervisory Committee, Major General Thein Swe, has told a meeting in Yangon.

Maj Gen Thein Swe said at the meeting of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry on December 29 that the planned move would allow organisations and private businesses to apply to the Trade Council for fuel import licences.

Under the existing procedure, only government-affiliated organisations and private companies, including the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd and Htoo Trading Company, may import fuel directly.

Other organisations must seek approval from the Trade Council to import fuel. If approval is granted, the organisation then has to submit an application outlining the amount of fuel and why it is needed.

“This will be the first time that the majority of operators in the private sector have been permitted to import fuel,” said a senior federation official.

“In the past, the federation imported diesel on behalf of its member companies through the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries,” he said.

Maj Gen Thein Swe – who is also the Minister for Transport – said priority will be given to the mining, gems, forestry, fisheries and livestock sectors.

A federation official told The Myanmar Times the planned loosening of import procedures has a clear purpose.

“Allowing the private sector to import fuel is designed to increase production, it’s not simply to distribute the fuel into the wider market,” he said.

U Hla Maung Shwe, the vice president of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, said the federation has been importing diesel with the Trade Council’s approval to supply the MFF’s members.

“In the past we’ve organised at least 20 separate fuel import shipments for our members. We have even organised a small committee to supervise diesel imports,” he said.

He said the MFF was not permitted to import fuel on a regular basis but added that if this happened it would be a boon for the industry.

“It would be extremely beneficial for our industry if we were allowed to import whatever amounts of diesel we need or wanted,” said U Hla Maung Shwe, who also operates a shrimp farming business.

“We are prepared to import diesel as soon as the Trade Council gives us the green light.”

U Myat Thin Aung, patron of Myanmar Industrial Association and president of the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone’s management committee, said industrialists will also want to import fuel, especially diesel.

“The demand for diesel is definitely on the rise in the manufacturing sector. Sometimes it takes three months for us to get enough fuel through the current importing process,” he said.

Myanmar mainly imports diesel from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. The imports place a heavy drain on the nation’s currency reserves.

Ministry of Energy statistics show that Myanmar produces about 80 million gallons of diesel each year for domestic consumption but imports account for some 330 million gallons a year.

Diesel consumption has tripled in the last decade while the thirst for petrol has doubled.

Figures within the industry say construction projects – especially the building of dams and hydropower projects – are pushing up the price of fuel because they require so much energy and fuel to build.

Domestic energy experts say that the cost of importing fuel last year was about US$600 million.