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Stop Insensitive Increase In BOST Margins – COPEC Tells NPA

Business & Finance Stop Insensitive Increase In BOST Margins – COPEC Tells NPA
DEC 16, 2019 LISTEN

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) wants the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to withdraw some new product elements contributing to the increase in fuel prices.

According to COPEC, a memo it has sighted from the NPA to petroleum service providers indicated that the NPA was increasing “some elements on the already high petroleum price build-up and fuel prices.”

“Per the directive which is expected to take effect 16/12/2019, all Oil Marketing Companies ( OMCs ) and LPG Marketing Companies ( LPG-MCs ) are to apply an upward review of a combined 4 pessewas increase to Ghanaian pump prices.”

Per the directive, the controversial BOST margin which currently stands at 3p/litre or some cumulative 10,200,000.00 from consumers is to be increased by 100% to a new rate of 6p/ litre or some cumulative 20,400,000.00 from consumers based on current conservative estimates of some 340 million litres of fuel consumed monthly, the UPPF component also gets increased by 4.7% or 1p from the current 21p/litre to 22p/ litre or some 3,420,000.00 cumulative monthly, COPEC noted in a statement.

It said the announcement by the NPA would cause more hardship for petroleum consumers, indicating that the prices of fuel only recently went up by about 1% and the onset of the festive season will make things complex for Ghanaians.

Read excepts of the statement below:

Fuel prices across pumps within the country went up by some 1% just last week following from days of sharp depreciation of the cedi and is believed could go up further in the next window starting tommorow as the cedi continues to depreciate.

This move by the NPA to slap additional levies on fuel prices at this critical point of Christmas makes a complete nonsense of the efforts by the Finance Ministry and the BOG to intervene to ensure availability of dollars at this time for petroleum importation with the view to forestalling any further increases on already neck breaking fuel prices in the country.

Whiles admitting BOST needs some capital injection in their operations, it is completely needless to push such needed investments into their operations onto the already high fuel price build up and affirms our long held position of the need to properly restructure that institution to cut back on the completely needless waste of resources at the said institution.

Some Past managers of BOST are widely known to have simply fleeced the company for their private gains and till date not a single one of them has been made to account or refund whatever they probably looted.

The proverbial adage of using a basket to fetch water seems to be case in this instance as we believe other private depots and tema oil refinery who do not get any margins at all for the maintenance of their tank farms from the price build up are able to manage their operations and even record profits sometimes but the inverse seems the case with BOST.

It is a widely held contention that what BOST needs currently is restructuring and repositioning to make it sustainable such that it doesnt become a burden on the already burdened fuel consumer.

Attempts should be made to diversify Bost and where neccesary list on the stock market to ensure the continuous plundering of resources by appointees within this institution is effectively curtailed.

We use this opportunity to further remind the NPA it has no such authority to impose new taxes, levies, or margins without the appropriate approvals by parliament and hence this memo must be withdrawn immediately and reconsidered as we will not hesitate to test the law on this particular move to further burden all of us within the country.

The apparent insensitivity by some functionaries of State must also cease forthwith as it is becoming evident the suffering of the trotro, taxi and ordinary Ghanaians falls on deaf ears anytime we complain of these increases.

Signed.

Duncan Amoah

Executive Secretary

—citinewsroom

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