Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that fuel prices in Ghana will go down by 15 pesewas per litre effective April 1, 2022.
This reduction will be in place for three months.
He disclosed this when he introduced bee measures adopted by the government to address the economic challenges.
“To mitigate the rising price of petroleum products at the pumps for the next three months, government has decided to reduce margins in petroleum price build-up by a total of 15 pesewas per litre with effect from 1st of April,” he said.
“BOST margin reduced by 2 pesewas per litre, unified petroleum pricing fund margin reduced by 9 pesewas per litre, fuel markin margin reduced by 1 pesewa per litre, primary distribution margin reduced by 3 pesewas per litre. These are expected to reduce the price of petrol by 1.6 percent and diesel by 1.4 percent. We anticipate the measures taken to stabilise the currency will help further stabilise the prices at the pumps,” Mr. Ofori-Atta added.
According to him, in addition to the aforementioned measures, the National Petroleum Authority and the Ministry of Energy are in talks with the various Oil Marketing Companies (OMCS) “to reduce their margins in the spirit of burden-sharing”.
Mr. Ofori-Atta attributed the sharp rise in the prices of petroleum products on the Ghanaian market to the upsurge in the prices of crude on the global market.
“The rising prices of fuel at the pumps is influenced largely by the rising crude oil prices on the international market and the exchange rate depreciation. Though the rise in crude oil prices should have been to our benefit on net basis, Ghana’s import of petroleum products amounts to 5.2 times the value of the proceeds from its crude oil exports. In 2022, we exported $3,947.70 million, of which Ghana’s portion was $513 million. However, we imported $2,719.00 of crude oil and finished products. The purported windfall gain in foreign exchange is a mirage. From January to date, the average ex-pump price of diesel and petrol have increased by 57% and 45% respectively.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
