The data was released on Friday by the central secretary of the Border Management Committee and technician of the General Tax Administration (AGT), Bráulio Fernandes, who presented the topic "The Role of the AGT in Combating Border Fuel Smuggling", from 2020 to 2024, adding that a total of 2,388,350 liters of fuel were seized.
Bráulio Fernandes was speaking at the lecture on "Combating the Smuggling of Petroleum Products", organized by the Attorney General's Office to commemorate the 46th anniversary of its institutionalization.
In the period in question, the largest financial losses for the country occurred mainly in 2023, with an estimated value of 215 million kwanzas for gasoline and 201 million kwanzas for diesel.
In 2024, there was a significant drop, with losses of around 51 million kwanzas for diesel and just over 101 million kwanzas for gasoline.
Also in 2022, fuel smuggling led to considerable losses of Angolan oil derivatives to neighboring countries, estimated at around 151 million kwanzas for diesel and 101 million kwanzas for gasoline.
Bráulio Fernandes highlighted that the trend is for a decrease in occurrences, essentially where the highest incidence had been observed, such as on the borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Namibia.
"The signs are increasingly decreasing," said the official, stressing that the highest point of seizures occurred in 2023 on the Luvo and Luau borders, in the provinces of Zaire and Moxico Leste, respectively.
The official highlighted that diesel is the most smuggled type of fuel, but the levels of diversion of gasoline have been increasing, rising from 7,755 liters in 2020 to 685,570 liters in 2023 and 219,200 in 2024.
The source highlighted the ineffectiveness of arrests, because in approximately 11 percent of the cases identified, the perpetrators escape from the police, abandoning the products, which makes it difficult to hold them criminally responsible.
"The data reveal that only a small percentage, approximately 11 percent of the cases in the period under analysis, include the identification of the agents involved in the criminal practices", he said, pointing out that 75.61 percent of the people arrested are Angolans, followed by those from the DRC (17.07 percent), Namibia (4.88 percent) and South Africa (2.44 percent).
"It is we, the national citizens, who have been committing these acts. It is Angolans who have been involved in these practices that are so damaging to the country," he stated.
Bráulio Fernandes said that the loss of revenue is a strangling factor for the country, given that it is a product subsidized by the State, and that there is a need to identify where there is the greatest need for fuel and allocate sufficient quantities.
"Today, for example, Zaire consumes fuel for two or three provinces together, for no reason. This is something that needs to be understood," he stated.
In turn, the provincial commander of the Zaire National Police, Commissioner José António Gaspar, said that 35 cubic meters of fuel are sold at gas stations every hour and a half, "which is unthinkable."
From 2024 until March of this year, 311 cases related to fuel smuggling were forwarded to the Public Prosecutor's Office, with a total of 325 arrests, and 770,425 liters of fuel were seized, mostly diesel (515,990 liters).
