Fuel prices at the pumps are expected to go up effective today, February 1, 2022, as the temporary removal of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) comes to an end.
Head of Pricing at the NPA, Abass Ibrahim Tasunti, spoke on the development.
“As we speak the levies on petrol, diesel and LPG have been off for three months which expired on the 31st of January. So, per our letter to industry players, it is to be restored effective 1st February 2022.”
The Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy was initially taken off the price build-up of fuel on the 1st of November 2021 for two months, but was later extended till the end of January 2022.
The move was to absorb some of the shocks on consumers from the frequent increases in prices on the international market.
But with this latest announcement by the National Petroleum Authority, fuel prices at the pumps are expected to go up effective today.
This would mean prices are likely to go up by 16 pesewas per litre on petrol, fourteen pesewas per litre (GHp14/Lt) on diesel, and fourteen pesewas per kilogram (GHp14/Kg) on LPG.
The purpose of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) was to stabilise prices for consumers and pay for the subsidies on Premix Fuel and Residual Fuel Oil (RFO).
Mr Tasunti stated that continuing with the suspension of the levy would hamper the provision of the latter.
“If we remove it forever, it means we will not have money to pay and will have to look elsewhere. You remember one of the reasons why price deregulation came into being was because of the non-payment of subsidies that accrued on fuel products and therefore it threatened the supply of these products and therefore we have to make sure that the levy while we use it to pay the subsidies, can also be used to stabilise prices.”
“So, for the three months that it has been taken off nothing has gone into the account and we have been using the backlog in the account over this period to pay for these subsidies.”
