The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Ghana (COPEC), has welcomed an announcement by the National Petroleum Authority that prices of petroleum products are likely to go down by 15% for the second pricing window of March 2020.

According to COPEC, this development should bring respite to consumers.

The move comes on the back of incessant pressure on the government by some stakeholders to reduce fuel prices, citing the recent drop in the price of crude oil on the international market and the appreciation of the cedi to the US dollar to make their argument.

In an interview with Class Business, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana, Duncan Amoah, said this would go a long way to better the lot of Ghanaians.

“I think every Ghanaian will be happy by this news, although we would have wished we even got it today. But 15th is just a few days away and I’m quite certain we would all awake. 15% reduction is a significant figure, if you do the maths. What you have currently at the pumps is around GHS24, GHS25 per gallon; it means that you could be buying fuel at about GHS21.”

The Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Hassan Tampuli, on Tuesday, 10 March 2020 said the government does not have the power to reduce fuel prices immediately.

According to him, the power to do so is in the hands of the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) as stated in the deregulation policy.

However, Mr Tampuli said per NPA’s calculations, fuel prices are likely to go down by about 15% in the next pricing window [16 March, 2020].