THE Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) has commended government for reducing Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) on Diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

Industry co-ordinator of AOMCs, Kwaku Agyemang-Duah told The Finder that government deserves commendation for cushioning consumers from further increases.

Extend intervention to petrol

He appealed to government to consider extending the intervention to petrol, which, he said, is used mostly by commercial drivers, especially taxi drivers, who have consistently complained about the situation.

Agyemang-Duah urged government to also consider reducing the various taxes imposed on petroleum products.

Reduction in diesel and LPG

Per the directive, diesel, with a PSRL of 10 pesewas per litre, will now be sold with 3 pesewas per litre of PSRL on it, representing 7 pesewas drop on each litre of diesel. Similarly, the price of LPG will also be revised by that same margin.

PSRL on petrol unchanged

Petrol, which is selling at a PSRL of 12 pesewas per litre, will remain unchanged.

Even though the directive said the reduction should have taken effect last Friday, December 1, 2017, Agyemang-Duah said AOMCs received the letter late on Friday, which was a public holiday.

Reduction to take effect today

As a result, he told The Finder that the association is doing the calculations, which should reflect at the pumps today or tomorrow.

Agyemang-Duah stated that it is possible that the government’s intervention may not result in price reduction, but would result in stability.

He explained that when prices of petroleum products increase, sales of products drop, which affects AOMCs.

Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy

The Price Stability and Recovery Levy (PSRL), under the Energy Sector Levies Act 899, is to provide stability for consumers at the pump in times of rising prices of petroleum products on the international market.

Consumers in Ghana have recently been enduring price hikes in petroleum products on account of marginal increases in crude oil prices on the international market and depreciation of the cedi.

A letter from the Energy Ministry and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) directed AOMCs to review the prices of the products in line with the revised Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL).

An analysis of the first seven months of 2017 shows that the prices of petroleum products have gone up five times out of the 14 pricing windows in the period.

The year started with, perhaps, the highest percentage rise in prices of petroleum products.

The prices of petrol and diesel went up by as much as 7.73% and 6.68% respectively.

Although the year began with a litre of petrol and diesel selling at 4 cedis 4 pesewas and 3 cedis 99 pesewas respectively, as of the middle of March, the price for the same quantity each of petrol and diesel had gone up to 4 cedis 49 pesewas and 4 cedis 47 pesewas respectively.