The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPECGH) has called on Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to reduce fuel prices by between 1 and 4 percent to lessen the burden of Ghanaian petroleum consumers.
According to COPECGH, the demand follows the commencement of the first fuel pricing window for February 2017 under the deregulation pricing programme of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
“Prices of fuel products within the country have seen some cumulative 14-17 percent increases over the past three pricing windows, with the last window which expired on the midnight of 31st of January recording further marginal increases.
“The cedi which has been the main challenge over the past three windows seem to have made some gains to stabilize over the past two weeks to currently close trading at an exchange of 4.2798 to a US dollar. World market indexes have seen some drops by over $2 /barrel to currently trade at around $53/barrel from the previous levels of around $56/barrel.”
COPECGH also said the levels of taxes in the country which have been of major concern for most Ghanaian petroleum users continue to remain at same levels though some aspects of the levies continue to rise anytime ex-refinery prices go up.
“It is our expectation that fairness under price deregulation, which dictates prices, should reflect current trends and market dynamics will prevail same way it does at the periods when prices have had to go up.
“We have seen periods when the Ghanaian downstream and petroleum service providers have remained quite insensitive to movement of indexes on the world market and the cedi’s performance though these two have often served as strong basis for the various PSPs when prices have had to go up.”
It stated that most pumps were dispensing at between 4.080-4.160/litre for petrol while diesel or AGO was trading at between 4.060-4.120/litre from previous levels of 3.930-3.961 for PMS and 3.930-3.960/litre for diesel.
“We encourage officials at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to continue working hard to stabilize and possibly strengthen the currency to forestall any further fuel price increases while reminding government of the need to also urgently review the high taxes and levies on fuel products across the country.
“We once again reiterate our call on the various BDCs and OMCs to reduce fuel prices across pumps to ensure the mounting pressure on Ghanaian pockets is reduced to commensurate world market movements and key local indicators.”
Executive Secretary of COPECGH, Duncan Amoah, urged Ghanaians to patronize the few OMCs who demonstrate price sensitivity over the period.
By Samuel Boadi