The Chamber of Bulk oil Distributors, (CBOD) wants Ghanaians to brace themselves up for more fuel price hikes due to the depreciation of the cedi against the major trading currencies.<\/p>\n
Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) recently sanctioned a 14 pesewa increment in prices of petroleum products following the implementation of the full deregulation<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of the petroleum downstream sector by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”KnYdIIKpTxpAHVgxb2ZoVmv6xMnYdT6t”]In an interview with Citi News<\/strong>, Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Senyo Hosi cautioned Ghanaians not to expect a reduction in fuel price anytime soon looking at the rate of depreciation of the cedi.<\/p>\n The cedi has so far depreciated against major trading currencies by 20% and there are increased calls from on the managers of the economy to halt the depreciation to protect businesses.<\/p>\n Mr Hosi, who defended the impending increments saying, \u201cas long as we have the exchange rate which is not getting any better, prices will naturally go up.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, the prices of petroleum products are currently about 13% subsidized.<\/p>\n He disclosed that the prices should have gone up by 17% but they only went up by 4%.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe one thing we all don\u2019t know is that for us to have reached this point, we all gave up some margins. BDCs gave up about 5% which effectively is about 25% to 30% of their gross margins to get the last price that we had,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n A number of the OMCs on Monday pegged the retail prices<\/a><\/strong><\/span> of petroleum products at filling stations at GH\u20a1 3.47 per litre for petrol and GH\u20a1 3.37 per litre for diesel.<\/p>\n The NPA in a statement said the development constitutes the first process towards the implementation of the petroleum product price deregulation.<\/p>\n It said: \u201cThe implementation of this first stage of price deregulation will continue into subsequent pricing windows while the Authority reviews the existing legal framework of petroleum products pricing towards a smooth implementation of the full steps of petroleum products price deregulation in Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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