The Chamber of Petroleum Ghana (COPEC) has projected another rise in the price of fuel at the pumps in the coming week.
COPEC said in a statement that “barely a fortnight after prices at the pumps in Ghana shot up by over 12% due to the introduction of some taxes, increases in margins by the NPA and industry; as well as increases on the international market, fuel prices are set to go up again in the next few hours”.
Read the full statement below:
FUEL PRICES GOING UP AGAIN IN A SPATE OF 10 DAYS
Barely a fortnight after prices at the pumps in Ghana shot up by over 12% due to the introduction of some taxes, increases in margins by the NPA and industry; as well as increases on the international market, fuel prices are set to go up again in the next few hours.
Geopolitical events over the past few days, have led to increases in international market prices from $630.525/mt to around $655.625/mt for premium or petrol as of Friday while the price of AGO or diesel has moved from $520/Mt to $545/Mt.
LPG has also seen a little over $1.6377 increase within the period though the country’s currency has been relatively stable within the period.
These increases on the international market translate to around Ghp 8/litre on local pump prices for both petrol and diesel or around 5% on the international price index, representing a further increase of about 1.25% variance on the current pump prices.
This variance is expected to likely reflect at the Ghanaian pumps on or before Tuesday (18/05/2021) and will eventually add on to the recent increases of over 12% a few days ago, thereby bringing the cumulative increases at the Ghanaians pumps to, in excess of a cumulative nominal Ghp 68/litre or 14% increase at the pumps within a spate of under 10 days.
The trend, if not checked, could likely continue or escalate as the geopolitical developments are pointing to bullish sentiments on the international market in the coming days.
The country does not have seem to have in place any mitigating policies or programmes in place to cushion the average Ghanaian from these international market price shocks, as the effects reflect directly at the pumps and on pockets.
A myriad taxes, including the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy component on pump prices, which should have provided a buffer in times like these for some of these price movements, has barely ever been used to cushion Ghanaians and the market around these times when needed and, thus, fuel prices are becoming pretty unbearable on pockets.
The country’s strategic stocks, which could have also been used to offset these price movements on the international market, are currently nonexistent, as the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation, instead of holding strategic stocks, has now become fully commercial in their outlook, though they continue to take monies from Ghanaians at the pumps in the name of BOST margins. We believe this particular margin ought to be looked at again if we need to bring fuel prices down.
The current state of Ghana’s only national refinery leaves so much to be desired as nothing seems to work; from poor management practices and decisions, as no productivity is happening there, even water has, over the past few weeks, been disconnected from the refinery due to its inability to settle its indebtedness to Ghana Water Company.
We call on the authorities to, as a matter of urgency, put concrete strategies in place to forestall these increases, as it is affecting harshly, the general cost of living within the country with transport operators waiting to slap increases on fares in the coming days.
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