The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) Ghana is calling on the government to through the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) implement a more sustainable and helpful strategy that will deal with the continued upward adjustment of petroleum products. This COPEC says will allow customers a little relief in tough economic times.
COPEC insisted that the “rampant increases in fuel prices is unacceptable”. When the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of COPEC, Sampson Addae spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East, he said “it has become like a normal routine for prices to go up. Just barely a month after Christmas, we have been hit by 2 increments. The second one, seems to be the one Ghanaians are talking about. It has scared most Ghanaians and it is something we have to look at”.
Responding to jokes about the abound on social media about fuel prices ‘breaking the 8’ Mr Addae said, “for me I will project ghc9 at the end of the year. For the 8, we will break it around somewhere in June or July. Very soon we will get to ghc8 and then we will get to ghc9”.
Mr. Addae explained that should the rift between Ukraine and Russia deepen, gas supply from Russia to Europe will suffer because pipelines pass through Ukraine. This will mean, Europe would have to rely on oil, to resolve their needs. He added that should oil producers also continue to hoard oil in their attempt to recoup lost investments during the surge of the Omicron sometime in December prices of petrol and other petroleum products could soar.
Additionally, the instability of the Ghana Cedi coupled with the high taxes and levies on petroleum products, will continue to dirve fuel prices up. This is according to Mr. Addae.
“All these combined, this year, we should tighten our belts, for more tough times ahead because fuel prices would be skyrocketing this year,” he added.
A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith| Ghana|
