The significant hike in fuel prices is sending shockwaves across Fijian households and the business landscape.

Despite government assurances of price stability, an abrupt hike in fuel costs – that is, a 20 percent hike in motor spirits, a 35 percent increase in diesel and a 71-cent-per-litre jump in kerosene price —is set to place a heavy burden on low-income earners.

The Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission has traditionally reset its petroleum product prices on the first of every new month. Price rest happens 12 times a year. No more.

Each new set of prices always happened with a one-month lag.

Meaning, each new month, when the FCCC announced what petroleum product prices would be for the rest of the month, it was based on market movements two months prior.

So, when the FCCC set their (just concluded) March prices on 1 March, it was based on the January movements in the market for petroleum products. You can read their press release here.

A one-month lag means the prices you pay now are worked off the market movements two months prior (not the month just gone), given prices are set at the beginning of the month (first of every month).

This means the March prices we just paid were based on the January 2026 market for crude oil and petroleum products.

Following that logic, the April prices that came into effect today should have been based on the February market. The question many are asking is what happened here? What happened in the global crude oil market two months ago?

Many say it appears the goal posts seem to have been shifted.

The methodology now applied by the FCCC makes no mention of a one-month lag anymore. See their latest press release here.

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The transmission of global oil price movements to Fijian petrol pump stations and Fijian households to meet energy requirements seems to be more immediate.

The FCCC appears to be taking an average of world market movements deep into the March quarter to set the prices for April. This has never happened before.

This is something new and should have been communicated by the FCCC.

The upside is that when prices drop, we should see a more immediate relief at the petrol bowser and gas retailers.

Let’s hope the goal posts don’t shift when prices go the other way.

FBC News has reached out to FCCC to explain the methodology used to calculate the fuel prices for April.