Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) have said that the prices of fuel in the country are likely to go up before February 1, 2022 if proper measures are not put in place to check price hike.
Over the weekend Ghanaians woke up to the news of increment in fuel price with some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) reported to have increased theirs to GH¢ 7 per litter.
Mr. Sampson Addae, the Pricing and Monitoring Officer at COPEC, in an interview with Ohene Addo on Plan FM’s morning show, ‘Nkosuo Nsem’ hinted that fuel prices are likely to go up before February 1, 2022 if the necessary measures are not taken within the industry and waned that it will lead to price hike.
Mr. Addae mentioned that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) must be operationalized to curb the cost incurred when refining oil in other countries and if this is done it will also reduce the demand for dollars which will ultimately stabilize the Ghanaian currency, the cedi.
He suggested that the government should resource Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) to get more storage tanks so that they can store fuel in excess for future usage.
Continuing he stated that the government and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) must work hand-in-hand to fix the price challenges to easy hardship on the citizens because it’s their responsibility to manage fuel prices.
A check with some of the OMCs revealed that the price of petrol is GH¢7 per litre while others are selling it between GH¢6.99 pesewas and GH¢6.80 per litre.
The increase is consistent with predictions by both the Institute for Energy Security (IES) and the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) that the price of the fuel would soon cross the GH¢7 per litre mark.
In terms of percentage, a litre of diesel at Total has gone up by 2.91 per cent per litre and 2.79 per cent for the price petrol per litre.
Other OMCs are likely to also increase their prices from today, Monday, January 17, 2022.
Fuel price increases trigger inflation (increases in the price of goods) in Ghana which contributes to economic hardship.
COPEC had predicted that prices of petrol and diesel were expected to surge by 3.7% and 2.5% respectively.
IES had predicted late last year that fuel prices are likely to hit GH¢7.0 per litre or more by December 2021.
Research Analyst at the IES, Fritz Moses, explained at the time that global demand for fuel is expected to increase in the winter and that could trigger a hike in prices globally in the wake of limited supply.
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