Fuel Consumers must get ready to purchase Petrol and Diesel at GHC 5 per litre at the pumps in the coming days.
The prices of the two products across most major Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) within the country have recently seen increases of about 2% from previous market averages of 4.850/litre for both petrol and diesel to now 4.900/ litre and 4.940/ respectively.
Industry watchers are predicting that the products may hit a GHC 5.00 average considering the continuous upward review of world crude oil prices in recent times and the unceasing depreciation of the Ghana Cedi.
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As at the weekend, crude oil prices in the world market was hovering around $ 68.88 to 78.29 per barrel and it is likely that these prices would shoot up this week. Such upward reviews automatically trigger an upward adjustment locally.
Already drivers are complaining about the continuous increment of fuel prices at the pumps, in spite of the removal of some petroleum taxes by the government recently.
Seeking his opinion in an interview with Public Agenda at the weekend, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), Mr Duncan Amoah said prices at the pumps are affected directly by two key factor and that include international market prices which refers to the movement of crude prices and that of finished products imported into the country.
He said, the second key element has to do with the strength of the cedi against the Dollar.
Mr Amoah explained that international market prices have been pretty stable for some days now so that might not push prices much.
“The Cedi however continues to struggle and we believe that until a solution is found to stabilize the devaluation of the Cedi, fuel prices will continue to go up across the country. It is for these and many other reasons that we are still waiting on the Ministry of energy to immediately put together a national dialogue,” Mr Amoah stated.
A couple of weeks ago, COPEC issued a statement calling for “an immediate national dialogue” on constant fuel price increases that have hit consumers over the past few months.
The statement said although there have been marginal increases on world market prices over the past two weeks, most of the major importers, however, attributed the latest hikes to the bad performance of the cedi.
Ghanaian fuel pricing formulae once again comes into question as there seems no end in sight to these rampant and sustained increases,” said the press release signed by Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah.
“We use this opportunity to call for an immediate national dialogue on these persistent but worrying increases with a stern focus on the current fuel pricing build up to discuss and review possible adjustments to find a lasting solution to this worrying trend as any further increases will be fiercely resisted,” COPEC stressed.
By Mohammed Suleman
