The National Petroleum Authority, NPA has justified the increase in the unified petroleum price at the fuel marking margins.
It said the increase has become necessary to ensure the availability of petroleum products and protect them from adulteration.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana, COPEC has for some time now called on the NPA to reduce fuel build-up margins, as there is a decrease in petroleum products on the international market.
Head of Pricing at NPA, Abass Ibrahim Tasunti said the Authority decided to increase the margins in line with the prices of petroleum products on the market.
” Approval has been granted based on the cost analysis that was done but there were reviewed this window because we expected prices to go down till it was a better time to review.
It should have been done a few weeks back but at that time prices were going up, and we couldn’t do that.
The fuel marking margin on the other hand is what ensures the quality of products is intact so it pays for that operation as well. put in chemical markers in the fuel to make sure that when the products leave the deposit and are taken to the fueling stations, then no one can adulterate these products with other products, so the consumers get quality products,” He said.
He mentioned that the depreciation of the cedi has contributed to the prices of petroleum products shooting up.
According to him, the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, GPRTU and other transport operators make their decisions independently without any influences from the Authority.