NPA turns to Supreme Court to halt removal of fuel levy

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court to halt the removal of ex-differential levy on fuel prices.

The Court of Appeal last month threw out an application by the Authority seeking to halt the implementation of an earlier ruling by a High Court that it should scrap the levy because it's illegal.

But Joy Business has learnt the Authority on Tuesday turned to the Supreme Court seeking to halt the action of the Appeals Court. Government has however maintained it might be forced to increase prices of Kerosene, LPG and Premix fuel by over 100 percent, if it scraps the levy.

An Accra High Court last year instructed the NPA and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to scrap the tax currently included in the fuel price build-up because it was introduced without parliamentary approval.

It also ruled that all moneys collected from the ex-refinery differential should be declared publicly and paid into the consolidated fund.

The levy over the years has been used to subsidize prices of LPG, Kerosene and Premix Fuel to bring down their cost.