Alhassan Tampuli
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has described as misplaced and premature, the call by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for government to reduce the price of petroleum products.
NDC’s call made through its Communications Director, Sammy Gyamfi, follows Saudi Arabia’s slashing of oil price by 30%.
But the Chief Executive of NPA, Alhassan Tampuli, strongly believes the call is misplaced, premature and aimed at scoring cheap political score.
According to him, the demand for the government to reduce fuel price shows that the NDC has not been learning about the petroleum industry since losing power in 2016.
“I think that is a call that clearly send the signal that our good friends from the other side really have not learned anything after they lost power,” he said.
“Because since 1st July 2015 when Mahama was the President of the Republic, we have moved from the time when government will intervene in the pricing of petroleum products to a time where the determination of price of products is made by Oil Marketing Companies,” according to him.
The key indicators, he said, are the forex exchange rate, the fob price and the taxes.
He noted that there are two windows for pricing petroleum products monthly, with the first pricing window starting from the 1st to the 15th of each month and the second window from the 16th to the end of the month.
According to him, it was unthinkable for the NDC to be calling on government to reduce the price on Tuesday, the 10th day of the month.
He noted that the call showed how ignorant Sammy Gyamfi is when it comes to petroleum products pricing.
BY Melvin Tarlue