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The tenuous economic position of most Burmese families has made fuel a trigger issue. The current unrest dates back to August 15, when the military junta increased the official price of fuel without warning — compressed natural gas increased 500 per cent, diesel doubled and petrol rose 67 per cent — leading to protests by pro-democracy activists.

When they were arrested the monks took over — at first, calling for relief for the people from economic hardship, only later for greater democratic freedoms.

The taxi driver who queues each day in Rangoon has a receipt book that allows him two gallons a day (60 gallons — 227 litres — a month); in Mandalay, the next biggest city, the quota is smaller, only six gallons a week. A government official gets a three gallon per day quota. At the military depot, the Rangoon regional commander gets more than he needs — a quota of 90,000 gallons a month.

"Regional commanders get rich because they sell their quotas," said a Rangoon-based economic analyst. "They have their own fuel reserves, but they get 90,000 gallons a month, and at least 50 per cent of that is sold on the black market."

They would share the profits with their senior commanders, he said.

Burma has significant natural gas resources but it imports all its petrol and diesel.

And while the military reaps rich profits from selling their quotas on the black market, the Ministry of Energy subsidises the price of petrol — and manages to lose money on each transaction.

This is because the ministry buys fuel internationally in US dollars but sells in the local currency, the kyat. The problem for the ministry is it cannot then use the internationally worthless kyat to buy the next round of fuel, so is forced to buy US dollars on the black market in Burma at inflated prices.

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