The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers of Ghana (COPEC) has slammed as deficient the current pricing template of Petroleum Products in the country.
It is therefore calling on government to immediately relook at the template as Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) began adjusting their prices to reflect increase in prices at the pumps.
According to predictions by the Institute of Energy Security (IES), the prices will go up by at least 7percent for the second pricing window on September.
“Prices are at their all-time highest today at some pumps in Ghana. Never in our history have we had to charge GH¢20 per gallon and so something must be wrong somewhere when crude has not even gotten to $60 per barrel yet,” bemoaned the Executive Director of COPEC Duncan Amoah on Morning Starr Wednesday.
“When international prices have gone up but they are not beyond levels that we have not seen before, one should be asking what could be leading all of us to where we are. That is why I said there is a problem with the pricing template that needs to be looked at again and immediately,” he added.
According to analysis by IES, for the first seven months of 2017 prices of petroleum products went up five times out of the 14 pricing windows in the period, Prices of petrol and diesel went up by as much as 7.73% and 6.68% respectively. It continued until March 15th, when the prices started to drop marginally.
In all, the first four months of 2017 witnessed an average increase in prices of 3 percent. Industry watchers attributed the development to the decision by oil producing countries to hold back production in January in order to recoup some of their recent losses. In addition was the cedi’s depreciation against the dollar coupled with drop in combined stock of Gasoline and Gasoil from about 130 to 120 thousand metric tonnes.
Continuing, Mr. Amoah also described as nuisance the price stabilization and recovery levy.
“What are you stabilizing when prices are skyrocketing and we don’t have any solutions to it? What are we stabilizing? We are still collecting 12 pesewas per liter from those buying petrol this morning. That clearly has become a nuisance,” he argued.
On his part, the CEO of GASOP Oil, Kojo Poku urged consumers not to go to fuel stations who are charging higher prices.
Responsible companies like PUMA and GOIL are having reasonable prices than others. As consumers, we have to be responsible with our buying,” he stated on Morning Starr.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
