Four major oil marketing companies have all dropped price of petroleum products at the pumps again in line with removal of some taxes on petroleum products last week by government.
This is the second time, in just four days that the major oil firms – Goil, Total, Shell and Allied – have reviewed prices, as picked up by JOYBUSINESS.
The first instance was on last Thursday, March 16 which was in line with the normal two weeks price review and the second, which happened March 20 as a result of the removal of excise duty and reduction of special tax rate on petroleum, from 17.5 to 15 percent.
The review has resulted in the price of a litre of petrol and diesel go down between 1 to 4 percent.
A check at the pumps reveals Goil is now selling a litre of Super at GH4.18 and Diesel GHC4.17 while Shell sells a litre of Super for GH4.18 and Diesel GH4.17.
Total Ghana -sells Super at GH4.18 and Diesel at GH4.15pesewas. Another player Allied charges consumers GH4.18 for a litre of Super and GH4.17 for Diesel.
The development will result in a gallon diesel from any of these major oil firms being sold between GH18.67 or GH18.73.
A gallon of petrol should be sold at around GH18.81 so if it takes about 10 gallons to fill your tank, then customers should expect to pay in the region of GH188.10 following these reviews.
With these firms commanding more than half of industry share, the other 88 OMC’s might be forced to also reduce prices in the coming days.
But with crude prices expected to be reduced in the coming weeks on the international market, and the cedi expected to stabilise against the dollar in the coming weeks, prices at the pumps could go down again before the end of March.
This development will reduce the cost of operations for most businesses and cost of living for individuals that had to up their fuel spending budget.
It could also prevent the expected hike in transport fares by the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) by the end of March and also influence any review in utility tariffs in the coming weeks.
-Myjoyonline