Vice President of the LPG Marketers Association, Gabriel Kumi, has classified as disappointing the exclusion of LPG in the Finance Minister’s announcement of price cuts in fuel by 15pesewas.
In an interview on JoyNews, he stated that the minister was specific in mentioning petrol and diesel but failed to mention Liquefied Petroleum Gas, stating that even though disappointed, “they would continue to push for the right things to be done.”
“LPG was not affected. If you look at what was being mentioned he specifically mentioned diesel, petrol and he is pushing for a 15 pesewas reduction in these two products. LPG was nowhere mentioned in the presentation,” he told Raymond Acquah.
The finance minister on April 24, disclosed that fuel prices will be reduced by 15pesewas on April 1, 2022.
According to Ken Ofori-Atta, the reduction is aimed at mitigating “the impact of the rising price of petroleum products at the pump, for the next three months.”
These reductions are also expected to reduce the prices of petrol by 1.6% and diesel by 1.4%.
i. BOST margin reduced by 2 pesewas per litre
ii. Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF) margin reduced by 9 pesewas per litre
iii. Fuel Marking Margin (FMM) reduced by 1 pesewa per litre
iv. Primary Distribution Margin (PDM) reduced by 3 pesewas per litre
The Vice President further consumption of LPG in the country has seen a decline in recent times and “that should be a source of big worry to every Ghanaian.”
“In 2019, we did an average of almost 30,000 metric tonnes a month that came down to 29,000 metric tonnes a month. It came further down to 28,000 metric tonnes in the average in 2021 and this year our projection is that LPG consumption is going to go further down to about 25,000 metric tonnes a month if the situation persists,” he indicated.
According to him, no government official has hit against the removal of taxes on LPG because “government itself sees the reasonable argument we are trying to put across.”
“You have set the target to increase consumption of LPG, you have set a target to double the consumption in LPG in 10 years. LPG is a product with an elastic demand, how can you achieve an increment in consumption whiles at the same time price of the production keeps moving up? In the first step, just take off the taxes from the product,” he said.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas