Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDC’s) in the country say they cannot be blamed for the recent hikes in petroleum products.
This comes on the back of fresh information from Parliament which revealed that the Ministry of Finance only sanctioned a 5% and 2.9% increase in the price of petrol and diesel respectively, contrary to the 22% and 27% hikes at the pumps.
This has led to many pointing fingers at the BDC’s and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
But in an interview with Citi News, the Chief Executive of the Chamber of the BDC’s Senyo Horsi insisted the new taxes are solely responsible for the increments since they have reduced their prices in recent times.
The increases which took effect from Monday, January 4, were mainly occasioned by the passage of the Energy Sector Levy by parliament in December 2015.
[contextly_sidebar id=”kO7TNmUuUbq4AtzhRwFQRp0dshV44YTg”]Speaking to Richard Dela Sky on Eyewitness News, Senyo Hosi said the CBOD and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) should not be blamed for the increases.
“As a matter of fact, BDCs have reduced their prices in the last few weeks in tandem with the world market trends. We respond to the world market and that’s how we price oil marketing companies. The situation you have at the pump is just a reflection of the impact that the new taxes have had on the ex-pump price. The taxes are quite many and a number of them too get taxed on another tax, so it has some extra impact,” he said.
He added that his chamber will call a press conference on Wednesday, January 6, to explain the formula that was used in the pricing.
“On Wednesday, we will be calling a press conference to demystify this entire pricing situation so everybody gets to understand. We will also put it on our website. This petroleum pricing is nothing sophisticated.”
Ghanaians are to pay new transport fares yet to be announced by transport unions who will meet with government officials on Thursday.
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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana