A senior Research Fellow of COPEC Mr. Samson Addae has suggested to the government to reduce taxes and take advantage of the newly commissioned refinery as the major sources to ensuring the continuous increase in fuel prices are halted. 

Fuel prices are expected to go up marginally, beginning tomorrow February 1, 2024, the Institute for Energy Securities has stated. This is due to a marginal increase in the price of finished petroleum products and the depreciation of the cedi. Whilst the price of petrol and Liquefied Petroleum Gas will go up by 2% that of diesel will also increase by 3%. “In the coming days, consumers going to the pumps are likely to see the following changes: an increase in the price of Gasoline [petrol] by 2%, 3% increase in price Gasoil [diesel] and 2% increase in LPG price largely as a combined effect of the Ghana cedi depreciation and the international market price rise for the products”.

According to the Global Standard & Poor (S&P) Platts platform, the price increment has been recorded for all refined petroleum products as of January 26, 2024. Petrol closed trade at $800.84 per metric tonne. Diesel on the other hand traded at $807.14 per metric tonne, and LPG traded at $535.41 per metric tonne in the second pricing-window for January 2024. A comparative analysis of the refined price data indicates an increase of 2.93%, 4.79%, and 2.44% for petrol, diesel and LPG.

But speaking to SOMPA NEWS, Mr. Sampson Addae says the government needed to introduce measures to halt the fuel prices since the current situation was killing industries.

Sompaonline.com/Asante -Yeboah Benedict