The Chamber of petroleum consumers has reiterated its call asking government to reduce the 17.5 % taxes imposed on petroleum products which took effect in January this year.
[contextly_sidebar id=”K8Z7vhu887TMQy3FRGhQRX3epIujAAy3″]The Chamber contends that the continuous imposition of the taxes will adversely affect Ghanaians.
“The chamber is unhappy at all with the 17.5% special petroleum tax; it looks as though the biggest challenge for most of these petroleum service providers currently is this tax component. If they were buying a barrel for 40 dollars and they are paying 17.5%, that will definitely be lower compared to when the prices of crude increases to 46 dollars a barrel,
“When that happens, they are forced to pass on that to the Ghanaian consumers which is what we are expecting to see on May 1st,” Executive Secretary of the Chamber, Duncan Amoah told Citi Business News.
The comments also follow a possible increase in the ex-pump prices of petroleum products effective May 1st, 2016.
A statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum best generic online pharmacy Consumers, Duncan Amoah indicated that fuel prices will shoot up between 5 and 10 percent.
The statement also attributed the increase to a rebound in global oil market prices which have increased from about 40 dollars per barrel to about 46 dollars a barrel.
Mr. Amoah also implored on government to reduce the taxes since he believes their imposition were influenced by the declining global oil prices which prevailed at the time.
“I think government could immediately do something about the levels of taxes since world market prices are rebounding to the 50 dollar per dollars margin as contained in the budget for which new taxes were introduced and others were increased,” he noted.
The first deregulation window in April saw the price of diesel and petrol go up by 2 and 4 percent per litre respectively.
Checks by Citi Business News indicated that a litre of petrol was selling at 3 cedis 47 pesewas.
Also, diesel was selling at 3 cedis 33 pesewas per litre.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
