The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers has reiterated calls for government to legislate a dual pricing mechanism to protect consumers from the effects of high prices of oil.
[contextly_sidebar id=”vvwBTY8FU3F6CJYJSGETK72jm6xZ3xZz”]The Chamber argues that government’s continuous imposition of taxes in the wake of a rebound in the global price of oil and the increase in the ex-pump prices by the Oil Marketing Companies, are unbearable for consumers.
Declining global market prices late last year, prompted government to among other things introduce the energy sector levies Bill to raise revenue to address inefficiencies in the energy sector.
Part of the revenue will also be used to clear the accumulated legacy debts owed by some state institutions like the VRA and TOR.
But the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Duncan Amoah tells Citi Business News the recent rebound in the global price of oil makes it necessary for the taxes to be cleared to ease the burden on Ghanaians.
“World market prices are rebounding to about 40 dollars a barrel but is government going to charge the same amount of taxes when the prices were declining and that it needed revenue which it obtained from the local market?” Duncan Amoah queried.
He further noted, “What we are asking is for government to put in place a dual pricing mechanism so that if the world market prices go up, whatever amount that Jubilee fields will give to government budget will naturally go up. So government should find a correlation of price fixing such that the local consumers are not overburdened with increases prices at the pump.”
The new pricing for the first two week window of the month of April saw petroleum prices go up.
Checks by Citi Business News at some OMCs in the capital showed that petrol has gone up by 4 percent selling at 3 cedis 47 pesewas per litre while diesel has shot up by 2 percent selling at 3 cedis 33 pesewas.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
