2024-02-13 17:59:04
Coup de grace for the budget of Cameroonian households. Despite strong opposition, the government has just announced a 15% increase in the price of gasoline at the pump, to 840 FCFA per liter on average and diesel to 828 FCFA. This unilateral decision goes down very badly with consumers fed up with years of tax manipulation.
Cameroonian motorists are fed up
It is a feeling of fed up which dominates this weekend among many Cameroonians. The cause of their exasperation? The government’s stubbornness in once again increasing the price of fuel at the pump, by 15% on average from this Monday, February 6, 2023.
Thus, the liter of super will reach 840 FCFA in many service stations in the country. A drastic outbreak experienced as a provocation by consumers whose purchasing power has continued to decline for years in the face of inflation and stifling taxation on fuels.
An ever higher bill
As a result, the most precarious households risk once again being suffocated by the addition of this umpteenth drain. In a context already marked by the soaring cost of basic food products and rent, it is difficult for many Cameroonian households to make ends meet.
And if gas and kerosene prices have been spared to preserve the purchasing power of the poorest, this should not prevent a future surge in the prices of transport and certain consumer goods. In short, it is the entire Cameroonian society that risks paying the bill for this new fiscal pressure.
An unpopular measure with high social risk
As a result, the social climate is becoming very sensitive as the 2025 presidential election approaches. On social networks, calls for mobilization are flourishing to denounce the injustice of this umpteenth drain. And even in the ranks of the majority, some voices are being raised to denounce the government’s lack of empathy in the face of an asphyxiated people.
The ball is more than ever in the authorities’ court to calm tensions through rapid and effective support measures. On pain of reawakening the specter of the hunger riots of 2008 which paralyzed Cameroon for weeks…