President of the Ghana Union of Traders Associations (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng has disclosed that the rising cost in fuel prices as a result of tax introduction will be passed on to consumers. According to him, although there will be an increase in prices, he explained that the increment will be marginal.
Justifying his stance, Dr. Obeng revealed that, prices of commodities are also influenced by other variables like the pandemic.
“If I say that I’m not expecting an increment then I may be lying; but it is going to be a very marginal increment.
“We also have to be mindful of the fact that there are other factors that are not local. The prices of raw materials have gone up because of Covid-19, that’s why metal prices have gone up astronomically and in some cases over 50%.
“Prices of almost every raw material have gone up, the freight charges have also gone up astronomically. If the price build-up keeps rising, then of course we should expect that there should be some increases in prices of goods and services”.
COPEC’s sentiment on fuel price increment
The increment in prices of fuel caused a national stir as various stakeholders called for its reduction. This prompted the Executive Secretary COPEC Duncan Amoah, to describe the increase in fuel prices as ill-timed and insensitive.
He intimated that the increase in fuel prices was unfortunate considering the fuel levy imposed in the 2021 budget. According to him, such a move has already caused some hardship among Ghanaians.
Days after a crunch meeting between the Minister for Energy and OMCs, Mr. Duncan Amoah welcomed the reduction of fuel prices by 8 pesewas per litre. According to him, the swift decision by the Minister for Energy was worth commending.
ACEP urges government to be innovative
Meanwhile, the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) has urged government to be innovative in harnessing untapped potential in the country.
Executive Director of ACEP, Benjamin Boakye, explained that, consumers are the ones who bear brunt of fuel margins brought on by regulators.
He further revealed that, the NPA and BOST must publish the utilisation of the existing margins to show cause for adjustment.
“We are talking about margins that cumulatively generates between 3.5 and 4 billion cedis annually. Nobody cares to even account for those margins. For the consumer to know how much those margins have been used for the object of setting them up. We are only told to pay more when the regulators [feel so] and we think that, that cannot be the case where accountability for such huge sums of money is totally missing.
“And we can go further to look at the specifics, what these margins are meant for. The UPPL, the BOST margin and the fuel marking margin. We have been paying BOST margin for decades and we don’t see the company using the revenue to deliver the object of setting up the fund. That is to keep a reserve so that when we so critically need it; we will be able to call on that reserve capacity”.
Read Also: ICMRA, WHO urge the pharmaceutical industry to provide access to clinical data
