Sampson Addae, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) Ghana has intimated that fuel prices could cross the dreaded ghc8 mark before the end of March 2022. This means that the fuel prices would ‘break the eight’ even before COPEC’s earlier prediction.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East, Mr Addae explained that due to the heightened tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the resurgence of businesses activities as cases of COVID-19 slowly fall as well as the defiant refusal by oil-producing countries to increase supply in an attempt to meet demand could be blamed for the sharp and continuous rise in fuel prices on the global market.
On the local front, however, Mr. Addae blamed the ever depreciating cedi, the many taxes and levies on petroleum products and the government’s refusal to take deliberate action to avert the continuous rise in prices as the reasons why Ghanaians are buying fuel at ghc7.990 at some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) dotted across the countries.
“We are anticipating that for the first pricing window of March, there will be another increment. This is why COPEC is saying that government should intervene and make sure that we amicably solve the pricing issue. If it involves calling for a national dialogue, for us to all come on board and propose an alternative measure to help or curb the rapid increase in fuel prices, then that will be okay,” he said.
Mr Addae insisted that government should reduce or completely remove the taxes on petroleum products. He also called on government to consider hedging against the increase in prices of the products while also offering better exchange rates to OMCs so that they can import fuel at relatively cheaper costs.
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