The African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) is threatening to drag the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and bulk oil distributing companies (BDCs) to court for exploiting consumers of petroleum products through price manipulations.
This according to them is because there are problems with the computation of the ex-pump prices announced by the OMCs.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Ivfp6NmjYHQi1JThMhx1n1SX8JmAHnQk”]ACEP argues that the actual indicative prices at the pump should have been at most 3.29 pesewas for Petrol and 2.92 pesewas for diesel.
And that the decision by the OMCs “to charge more than the highest indicative prices is in illegal and unwarranted.”
Addressing the media in Accra the executive director of ACEP, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams wants the National Petroleum Authority to as matter urgency call the OMC’s to order to ensure that sanity prevails so that the Ghanaian obtains the full benefits of deregulation.
According to him they have evidence to show “that the prices as announced by the OMCs do not reflect the market forces as demonstrated by the indicators that affect the pricing of the products.”
They also allege that “based on the price indicators from the chamber of bulk oil distributors, the computed ex-refinery price at that pump shows there are problems in the computation that point to price manipulation and exploitation of consumers.”
The ACEP boss believes that their computations reveal that Total and Allied Oil should have reduced the prices of petrol by 17 percent instead of the 11 percent and 13 percent they announced respectively.
They also say GOIL should have decreased its price for diesel by 18 percent instead of 14 percent.
He also alleged that it is not only the OMCs that are “cheating consumers! The BDCs have also been involved in this bad faith”.
Dr. Amin further argued that these BDCs “decided to give their products to the OMCs based on a reduction in the ex-refinery price indicator (XPI) by less than the actual reductions in the XPI of 23 percent for petrol and 25 percent reduction for diesel which was mostly due to the fall in the value of the US dollar by 25 percent over the period under consideration”.
To him most of the BDCs gave the OMCs a reduction of 17 percent in the XPI, a situation he described as worrying.
Dr Amin Adam finally stated that ” it is important for the BDCs and the OMCs to realize that there are criminal and civil remedies provided in the NPA Act 691 and the protection against unfair competition act 2000. And that they will not hesitate to seek legal redress to force the market to be fair”.
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By: Raymond Acquah/citifmonline.com/Ghana