2024-02-13 01:55:51
While the recent surge in gasoline prices goes down very badly among Cameroonian citizens, an Internet user has made clever calculations to demonstrate the enormous benefits that the State will derive from it, far from official speeches. Uncompromising analysis.
Up to 19.6 billion additional revenue per month
By increasing pump prices by 15% at the beginning of February, the Cameroonian government intended to partly offset the rise in world prices and preserve its subsidy capacity. But behind this pretext, an Internet user with formidable calculations has ruthlessly dissected the hidden face of this measure: colossal profits at low cost for the state coffers.
Thus, based on a monthly consumption of 80 million liters of gasoline and 100 million liters of diesel, our budding statistician arrives at additional tax revenues of 19.6 billion FCFA per month thanks to this increase! That’s almost 250 billion over one year… Enough to put official speeches on constrained spending into perspective.
Crumbs for civil servants, billions for the State
Because at the same time, the shortfall for consumers amounts to tens of thousands of FCFA over the year. As for the compensation measures (5% salary increase for civil servants), they will cost the State less than 50 billion over 12 months. In other words, households drink glasses when the public windfall is stuffed.
An implacable observation which annihilates the government’s communication strategy. And which implicitly denounces certain decisions where the interests of the people would come after those of the state coffers, even though they are already well filled in these times of oil and gas booms.
Towards a popular upsurge?
In short, these little edifying calculations will have the merit of lifting the veil on the real motivations behind this umpteenth increase in gasoline prices. To the great dismay of the public authorities caught in the act of double-talk.
Because now, Cameroonians are measuring in black and white the weight of the sacrifices imposed on them in the face of the mountains of cash raked in by the state Leviathan. A real salutary electric shock to, perhaps finally, break out of passivity and resignation? It’s all the bad we can wish for this “amorphous people” taken hostage by business elites, and which the internet is fortunately responsible for unmasking…