Foreign currency service stations will be limited to two in each province, with oil companies allowed to hold no more than two licences, each in a different province, and competitive bidding will kick off if more than two companies want the two stations in any province, under regulations gazetted yesterday.

Foreign currency fuel will be marked, probably by a special dye, to stop ordinary fuel being sold for foreign currency or for legal forex fuel being diluted with ordinary fuel.

Service stations selling in foreign currency will be compelled to bank all that currency into a suitable account approved by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

This will prevent owners of these stations keeping foreign currency in cash. Non-oil bills will have to be paid in Zimdollars, preventing the forex stations from being a start of redollarisation.

Swinging penalties for cheating are set with fines and civil penalties varying, but the accompanying jail terms almost always set at five years in the long awaited Petroleum (Direct Fuel Imports and Marketing of Fuel) Regulations 2020 issued yesterday by Energy and Power Development Minister Fortune Chasi, after consultation with the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority.

Only the larger holders of procurement licences, the oil companies, can even start applying for their maximum of two forex service stations.

An oil company has to own at least 25 retail licences before applying and then has to satisfy the Petroleum Regulatory Authority, which licences all oil companies and service stations, that all petrol and diesel sold at the service station will be procured using free funds or legally held foreign currency they have earned.

The several requirements and limits set mean that a maximum of 20 service stations can be converted nationally to forex stations and even the smallest qualifying oil company will be able to convert no more than two of its 25 stations, so must keep 92 percent of its business in Zimdollar stations with larger companies keeping a higher percentage as ordinary Zimdollar stations.

Thus the overwhelming bulk of service stations are to be retained as ordinary Zimdollar stations with the forex stations just being a tiny percentage.

The set maximum of two forex stations in each of the 10 provinces, and every oil company having their two stations in different provinces, has an extra limitation.-State media