The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has forecasted a 4% hike in petroleum product prices effective today, July 16, 2024.
COPEC reports that retail prices for petrol, diesel, and LPG are set to rise due to the Cedi’s further depreciation against the dollar, shifting from $1 to GH¢15.2779 to $1 to GH¢15.462 (-1.205%).
“Barring any unforeseen last-minute major changes in global petroleum FOB prices, indications across the downstream petroleum market are that, the pump retail prices of all three products petrol, diesel and LPG, will go up effective Tuesday, 16th of July, primarily due to further depreciation of the Cedi relative to the Dollar rate from an average of $1:GH¢15.2779 to $1:GH¢15.462P (-1.205%) in the next retail pricing window, beginning 16 July 2024,” a statement from COPEC indicated.
It further stated that the following will constitute the projected mean retail prices for petroleum products to within ± 5% of COPEC’s projection starting from Tuesday, 16 July 2024.
COPEC’s Executive Secretary, Duncan Amoah, thus projected price changes of GH¢14.795/L for petrol, GH¢15.332/L for diesel, and GH¢16.205/kg for LPG, with a 14.5 kg cylinder reaching GH¢234.97.
For petrol, it said with the international price increasing from $816.61/MT to $843.00/MT (3.23%), the retail price works up to GH¢14.795/L.
“Thus, the retail price of petrol is expected to increase by 3.75% of the current mean pump retail price of GH¢14.26/L, to close selling between GH¢14.06/L and GH¢15.53/L, within ±5% range of COPEC’s projected figure of GH¢14.795/L,” it stated.
With the International FOB price increasing from $788.32/MT to $792.32/MT (1.80%), diesel is expected to increase in price by about 4.69% of the current mean pump retail price of GH¢14.64/L to be selling between GH¢14.57/L and GH¢16.10/L, within ±5% range of COPEC’s projected figure of GH¢15.332/L.
LPG is expected to be average at GH¢16.205/kg. Thus, within ±5% error, LPG is expected to be selling between _GH¢15.39/kg and GH¢17.01/ kg.
COPEC maintains that government must do all it can to reduce taxes on LPG or to subsidise the price of LPG to promote and encourage its nationwide accessibility and usage which will eventually help save the environment from further degradation by the use of firewood.
“Currently, the total taxes and levies on retail prices of petrol and diesel are about 22.56%. COPEC is requesting for the reduction of tax rates or to take off some of the fuel taxes to lessen the burden on consumers.
Alternatively, a formula can be adopted to vary the total levies with changes in the Dollar: Cedi rate,” it added.
A Business Desk Report