BDCs are ‘heroes’ of petroleum pricing – ACEP

The African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) has lauded the Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDCs) for publishing the fuel price indicators.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, the Executive Director at ACEP, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam described the BDCs as “heroes” of the petroleum-pricing regime.

“I think that the heroes of this deregulation are the BDCs because of their ability or decision to publish the XPI [Ex-refinery price index] and I think that we should acknowledge that because without it we cannot be able to do our analysis,” he said.

Government at the beginning of June  deregulated the pricing of petroleum products.

But some stakeholders have criticized the move saying it could breed cartels.

However, following the publication of the price indicators by the BDCs showed that the recent reduction in fuel prices by the OMCs should have been 25%.

Dr Adam further urged the BDCs to continually publish the price indicators to ensure that Ghanaians are not cheated.

“I will like to urge them not to give up, they should continue to publish that statement as a public duty to us so that we can continue to monitor the prices and to be sure that the OMCs are passing on to us the reductions the BDCs are giving to the OMCs.”

ACEP had earlier threatened to sue the OMCs and the BDCs for exploiting consumers through price manipulations.

This according to them is because there are problems with the computation of the ex-pump prices announced by the OMCs.

By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana