Executive Secretary of Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has commended Ghana Standards Authority’s introduction of a new logo to regulate fuel pricing at fuel stations.
According to him, the introduction of the logo will expose recalcitrant pump stations selling fuel below the GSA specified standard.
Mr. Amoah made this revelation when Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) donated some equipment to the Ghana Standards Authority.
The added value logo from the GSA will be at various petroleum stations and will differentiate the oil marketing company selling actual litres of fuel from those ripping consumers off.
“We’ve worked extra harder in designing something we call the Trusted Trader and it is our belief that very soon, the consumer body together with the Ghana Standards Authority will be rolling out an added value logo, that says that these outlets have been double verified what they are delivering to you is nothing but exactly what they promised”.
GSA set to ensure adherence to regulations
On his part, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority, Professor Alex Dodoo, indicated that GSA’s surveillance was hampered due to insufficient equipment to expedite work.
Additionally, he noted that his outfit will increase the number of times they frequent the fuel stations. This, he explains, will ensure fuel stations go according to stipulated standards.
“The gauges are quite expensive I must say. The donation we have today is close to £70,000. I know that in 1993, GSA bought about four more; these are equipment you need to assure yourself that you’re checking the volumes delivered by oil marketing companies and that they are accurate. As we speak, we have only four teams nationwide doing the work purely because of the lack of equipment.
“Now with the more than doubling of our capacity by this donation from GOIL, we can create eight teams, which means that, we’ll work faster [and] we’ll check better. Thankfully, starting this year, we have doubled the number of times we verify the volumes. We used to do it every six months but now we are doing it every three months.
“Our hope is that, once parliament also gives us stronger penalties we can apply them to ensure consumers will feel comfortable that they are getting value for money and that when they go to the pump, what they pay is what they get”.
GOIL to absorb fuel prices
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of GOIL, Kwame Osei-Prempeh, revealed that his company will absorb the cost of fuel despite recurring adjustments made to it. He further stressed on GOIL’s commitment to diligently serve the public.
“The second window is gone [and] you heard COPEC and others saying that we were going to go up by eight percent [but] we decided to absorb it. We decided not to go up. GOIL, one of our major things is we stabilize prices. All the others look at us, but because we are truly Ghanaian… most often we decide that we won’t go up.
“Our profits have come down but we believe that for your sake we decided we won’t go up. We are praying that going out of winter, prices on the world market will come down. The cedi has stabilized for the past five months. So, if prices go down on the world market, we assure Ghanaians that prices will come down accordingly”.
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