Pumps run dry in Myanmar’s Yangon amid fresh fuel shortage
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Yangon’s inhabitants regularly face fuel shortages, which also affect businesses and hospitals that rely on generators for power.
PHOTO: AFP
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YANGON - Taxi and tuk-tuk drivers in Myanmar’s commercial hub Yangon on Aug 14 queued for hours for scarce petrol, in the latest shortage fuelled by civil war and a tanking economy.
Myanmar’s local kyat currency has plunged against the US dollar since the military seized power in 2021, hitting importers’ ability to pay for fuel shipments.
Yangon’s eight million inhabitants regularly face fuel shortages, which also affect businesses and hospitals that rely on generators for power during frequent electricity blackouts.
Mr Thein Myint, 62, said he had been queueing in eastern Yangon’s Thaketa since the night of Aug 13, waiting for a chance to fill up his car. “They (the fuel station) don’t say if we will get fuel or not... I don’t want to go anywhere else, so I have to wait until I get some petrol.”
A tuk-tuk driver at another petrol station said he had been queueing since 6am on Aug 14. “They were selling fuel, then they stopped as they ran out... They only sell 50,000 kyat (S$20.30) worth of fuel per car and only 3,000 per motorcycle,” he said.
“I can do two or three routes with the 3,000 worth of fuel. I have to come back here when it runs out. I don’t have any other job. So what can I do if I don’t have petrol?”
In December 2023, the junta launched a crackdown on fuel hoarding, with the authorities threatening to jail anyone found with more than 180 litres of petrol without a licence.
Myanmar’s economy has tanked since the coup, which sparked huge pro-democracy protests that were crushed by a military crackdown.
More than three years on, the junta is struggling to crush an armed uprising.
In recent months, it has lost swathes of territory and control of several border trade crossings to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups.
A junta statement on Aug 14 blamed the current fuel shortage on drivers making “more purchases than usual” and said it had provided additional supplies to areas in need.
A taxi driver in Yangon said: “I cannot drive, even if a passenger comes, because I don’t have petrol.
“We also have to save some petrol in case of emergency because we don’t know what will happen to the country.” AFP
