Fuel shortage, forex rate break records
273
Tun Mon Thet (NP News) - Aug 20
Traffic congestion seems reduced on the roads that used to be very busy in Yangon. It happened in the second week of August. It isn’t the result of effective traffic management, ironically, but because of the serious fuel shortage. However, very long queues were observed at the filling stations, especially, in Yangon, Naypyidaw, and Mandalay.
It has been over a week since the gasoline shortage was reported in multiple cities of Myanmar as of 14 August. Fuel selling at the stations was closed while some ran out of fuel. The stations that remained operational allowed purchasers with ration systems.
Some vehicle owners lined up by staying overnight in the queuing columns of the long waiting lists at the gasoline stations. Some reported that the overnight queues even congested traffic on the road in the early dawn in Yangon.
“The exchange rate and gasoline problem are fueling the public into full of anxieties and worries. Children cannot go to the schools and transportation is also disrupted. The economic activities, turnover, and transactions, all of them almost ceased. However, nobody explained this to the public. It is lack of responsibility,” a father of two children explained about the situation in Yangon.
As per the information, school buses of some basic education schools in the Yangon Region reportedly ceased their services for the children due to the extreme difficulties of getting gasoline.
Meanwhile, school buses of some famous schools in Yangon have been buttressing the hardships for the sake of children. Those school-bus owners had to buy gasoline from the external market at K20,000 per litre while the station petrol price stood at around K3,000 per litre, as of 14 August.
“Yes, the school buses from other schools now ceased their services today (14 August). We don’t stop our services until now. The school-buses committee of our school cannot direct anything,” an owner of the school bus from a high school located in Kamayut Township told The Statesman. She continued, “Since we are the school buses, we cannot wait for the very long queue nearly for four hours for each filling time to get the gasoline as we have to transport at the right time with to-and-fros of picking up the children. So, I have to purchase the gasoline from the external market which I have to pay K20,000 per litre.”
“Today, the school bus of my grandchildren does not pick up them. They stop their services. Since they informed us lately, I could not bring my grandchildren to the school,” a man who lives in South-Okkalapa Township said.
Fuel shortages were disrupted at the worst this time which disturbed the business operations, and individual transport services of both public and private so badly.
On the other hand, the forex rate peaked at K7,150 for a dollar in the late evening of 13 August which was the highest reference in Myanmar throughout history. However, the rate slightly declined to K6,600 per dollar in the afternoon of 14 August.
A housewife living in the Yangon Region reported, “I’m so shocked as the commodity prices are skyrocketing. The prices are flying high and high day after day. I don’t see some imported goods at the supermarket.”