Sittwe: Townspeople in Sittwe have been suffering from a shortage in the supply of petrol from the Htoo Trading Company, which is responsible for supplying petrol in the city after the government privatized petrol stations and handed them to the company for operation, said an elder resident in Sittwe.

"The company sells only a half gallon of petrol to a motorbike per day at a cost of 2,500 kyat per gallon in Sittwe through the petrol stations, and we have to line up to get the half gallon of petrol for many hours," he said.

Many owners of cars and motorbikes in Sittwe have to line up in front of the petrol stations every day in order to get a half gallon of petrol because the price on the black market is too expensive, at twice what the Htoo Company is charging.

"On the black market, the price of petrol is 4,800 kyat per gallon in our town. It is difficult for every car and motorbike owner to buy petrol at the high price. So many people go to the petrol stations with their vehicles to buy petrol at the lower price," he said.

According to a local source, the authorities of the Htoo Trading Company in Sittwe are widely suspected by local residents of smuggling their own petrol out to the black markets in order to get higher profits.

"There is information spreading in Sittwe that the Htoo Trading Company has set up a syndicate in Sittwe to sell petrol at higher prices through the black markets. Petrol is strictly controlled by the government but in the black markets in Sittwe you can buy petrol at anytime at high prices. People have begun to doubt the Htoo Trading Company," the source said.

The government sells petrol to the company for 2,300 kyat per gallon, and the company has to charge the public 2,500 kyat per gallon in accordance with their government contract. Because of this, officials from the Htoo Company are suspected of selling the petrol illegally through the black markets to get more profit.

According to a business source, the government reduced the import of petrol in the last week of November. Afterward, the price went up and Htoo Company reduced the amount they supplied to cars and motorbikes in Sittwe.

The black market sale of petrol had disappeared in Burma over the last few years, after the military government privatized fuel stations in 2008 and awarded contracts to operate them to private companies including Htoo, which is run by business icon Tay Za. Recently, however, the black market for fuel has re-appeared throughout the country.