The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has been advised to check that the petroleum product pricing regime will not give rise to the development of cartels.<\/p>\n
A former Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, John Attafuah warned that there is a high tendency that cartels will crop up therefore it is important for the Authority to be alert because \u201cwe don\u2019t have to take any chances with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”qGCx6LIpQA2ndpFD9SvxcB1snOdI62Ah”]According to him, the NPA Act criminalizes cartelization because the framers of the Act knew very well that the development of cartels was a highly possible, therefore, the Authority must effectively undertake its watchdog role.<\/p>\n
From June 15, the NPA will no longer be involved<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in the pricing of petroleum products.<\/p>\n This means that the importers of the petroleum products \u2013 the BDCs and the suppliers of petroleum products will now bring in their products into the country at competitive prices and then sell to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) at competitive prices.<\/p>\n The OMCs will then pass on the prices to the retailers at the pump.<\/p>\n The NPA has allayed fears that the public<\/a><\/strong><\/span> will be cheated, stating that it trusts the BDCs to price the products fairly.<\/p>\n Aside the issue of cartelization, Mr. Attafuah in an interview on Eyewitness News mentioned other challenging situations likely to emerge with the new development.<\/p>\n Monopoly<\/strong><\/p>\n The former NPA boss said monopoly situations should be avoided.<\/p>\n According to him, it will be very risky to allow individuals or certain groups of people to dominate the petroleum sector which will restrict competition and eventual make Ghanaians \u201cjust pawns in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Attafuah thus urged the NPA \u201cto ensure that no player in this field is given unfair advantage to the extent that it becomes a monopoly or we get cartels formed especially when politicians become the unseen hands with these players in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Licensing<\/strong><\/p>\n John Attafuah charged the NPA to be very transparent in licensing players in the petroleum industry.<\/p>\n He said \u201cthe issue of local content, the issue of infrastructural development of the various players must be looked at and done transparently so that we don\u2019t run into any problems.\u201d<\/p>\n He was convinced that all these problems could arise if politicians become owners of the BDCs.<\/p>\n This, the former NPA boss said will result in a situation where \u201cdecisions may not be in the boardrooms but behind the scenes and therefore nobody gets to know what is going on but it\u2019s jut politicians deciding what to do with the industry so that they can make money.\u201d<\/p>\n NPA is capable<\/strong><\/p>\n John Attafuah said he is sure that the officials at the NPA and the Authority\u2019s board are capable of ensuring that Ghanaians are fairly treated in the new pricing regime.<\/p>\n He nonetheless indicated that should the NPA fail in exercising its oversight responsibilities, Parliament\u2019s committee on energy can play their role and ensure that they police the sector to ensure that we don\u2019t get cheated along the line.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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