Duncan Amoah, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), has suggested that the prices of petroleum products may see a continuous increase for the next two to three months.
This comes in the wake of oil marketing companies implementing price hikes ranging from 3% to 8% over the weekend.
Analysts attribute this surge to a combination of the upward movement in crude prices on the international market, the recent depreciation of the cedi against the dollar, and adjustments in levies and margins by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Amoah cautioned that projections indicate this upward trend is likely to persist.
Speaking on Starr Today, he stated, “Projections out there as far as international market pricing is concerned doesn’t look as though prices are going to cool off anytime soon. So, we may be here for about two, three months before any cooling would happen.”
Highlighting the importance of currency stability, Amoah urged the Bank of Ghana to address the cedi’s decline to help bring stability to fuel prices.
He emphasised, “If the cedi also gets wobbly and dances a very bad dance, then we could be in for some additional increments by March, by April, by May.”
Expressing concern over the recent increase in the BOST margin by the NPA, Amoah questioned the rationale behind raising the margin for a profitable entity like BOST.
While acknowledging the justifiability of some other levies, he added, “The only challenge we’ve had with what the recent move has been simply has to do with the BOST margin that has gone up. We are asking if indeed BOST as a profit-making entity that has declared profit the past three years will still need to collect more from the public? That we continue to disagree with.”
Source: Ghanaweb
