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The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, Mr Alhassan Tampuli, said the country loses over 200 million dollars annually in tax revenues due to the nefarious activities of service providers of the petroleum sector in order to evade tax.

      He said the Authority had rolled out stringent measures to tackle the problem head-on, in close collaboration with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Navy and other relevant security agencies.

      Some of the measures include intensification of digital solutions like the Bulk Road Tracking System, the integration of the Ghana Community Network and GRA Monitoring Platform into the Enterprise Relational Management System for harmonisation of information and monitoring.

      Mr Tampuli made this known at the second edition of the Ghana International Petroleum Conference in Accra on the theme: ‘‘Realising the Vision of a Petroleum Hub’’.

      The four-day event was under the auspices of the Energy Ministry and Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, in collaboration with the National Petroleum Authority and Association of Oil Marketing Companies.

       It brought together key stakeholders in the petroleum downstream sector including policy-makers, regulators and oil service providers, to deliberate on policies and trends in the sector, as well as discuss pertinent issues affecting the industry in the bid to guide decision-making.

      The participants are expected to come out with some recommendations to help resolve challenges in the petroleum downstream sector and chart the way forward.

      Mr Tampuli said the Authority would ensure due processes for export and bunkering of petroleum products as well as applying stiffer punishment for offenders including withdrawal of licences.

      ‘‘Recalcitrant service providers will be made known to the public by way of naming and shaming offenders and directors would be banned from participating in any activities in the downstream petroleum sector,’’ he warned.

      Mr Tampuli gave the assurance that all unpaid taxes would be recovered, noting that the recent measures had seen the Authority saving the nation nearly 16 million Ghana cedis in tax revenue alone and seven million Ghana cedis in unpaid margins.