Government spokesperson Gospel Kazako has asked Cooking Oil Companies to reduce cooking oil prices following the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on the product.

Writing on his Facebook page, Kazako reminded the companies that their main reason of rapidly increasing cooking oil prices was because the government re-introduced VAT on te product.

“Cooking oil companies told the citizens of this country that the cooking oil price hike was a direct result of the taxes government introduced on cooking oil,” wrote Kazako.

He added; “Now that government has removed taxes on cooking oil, we expect an immediate drop in price.”

However, the call by Kazako has received backlash from the populace as they have reminded him that the budget has not yet passed and government has not yet gazetted the VAT removal on Cooking Oil.

While other are demanding that government should tame the inflation and reduce all other taxes in production then maybe prices will fall.

Weston Masuku asked “Is the removal in effect already? I thought it would wait for the budget to pass.”

One Trevor Tambula commented; “It has been scraped yes but that can not be done instantly what about output VAT charged on the raw materials that the companies producing cooking oil were charged. Bwana get things right by consulting the tax authorities on how costing is done.”

Meanwhile cooking oil companies have not commented on the matter, both on VAT removal and Kazako’s demand.