Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC Ghana), Duncan Amoah, has asked the government to utilise the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) properly in order to curtail the rise in fuel prices.
Fuel prices are inching closer to GH¢7 per litre at major fuel trading stations despite assurances of price stabilisation as a result of removal of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL).
Last month, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo approved a request from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to zero the PSRL for two months in order to stay the increasing reviews of petroleum prices.
The move was aimed at cushioning consumers from feeling the full impact of the rising global prices on petroleum products.
Nonetheless, prices on Friday, November 5 increased at most pumps.
Petrol and Diesel are selling at maximum GH¢6.9 per litre and minimum GH¢6.75 per litre.
But the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of oil marketing companies (OMCs), Kwaku Agyeman Duah, sees no end in sight soon.
“The trend around this time [means] it will continue going up,” he told Alfred Ocansey on 3FM’s Sunrise on Monday, November 1.
“We are still going to have some increments because the factors that affect the increments are still there. The increasing trend will continue.”
Speaking on this development in an interview with TV3, Mr Duncan Amoah said “If we wait for transport operators to increase their fares which would affect food cost, which would affect the cost of goods and services, eventually everything will go up. If somewhere later next year, prices decline sadly, the cost of living will not decline because it has already gone up.
“So if we have a window to manage it today let us manage.
“The facility BOST should be put to good use. You cannot have those huge tanks that fail to stock up when prices are lower. This is where you would have needed strategic stock to kick in if we had. Because during winter prices for fuel would naturally go up.
“The summer times people open their windows they don’t use as much for heat and prices normally are favorable yet. We are not taking advantage of the leverage BOST would have provided to save all Ghanaians so we don’t have strategic stock and that is a danger.”
Source: 3news