Analysis: Petrol is overpriced in Ghana
The ex-pump price of petrol has been overpriced by petroleum service providers, especially BIDECs and OMCs within the petroleum downstream by more than GHC1 per litre.
The price of petrol in each window is determined by the FOB price, BDC margin or Supplier’s premium, Forex rate, tax/Levies/margins, and OMC margins.
The FOB price of petrol per metric in this window is US$878.41, forex rate is Ghc12.67, which is a weighted average of 30% of bi-weekly import cover from BOG and 70% bi-weekly import cover from Universal banks.
The BDCs or BIDECs have historically used US$120/mt as their premium or margin and the OMCs historically have used a maximum of GHC1.20 per litre as their margin. The tax/Levies/margins sum up to GHC2.63.
Taking into consideration the conversion factor of petrol which is 1324.5 litres in an MT and the determinants, the maximum ex-pump price of petrol in the 2nd window of February, beginning from 16 February should be GHC13.17/Litre.
However, a market survey on 16 February revealed that some OMCs were selling petrol above Ghc14 per litre which is quite outrageous, and that is GHC1 higher than the expected price of GHC13.17 per litre
There has been a growing concern about overpricing of Petroleum products in Ghana yet the National Petroleum Authority has not institutionalised any strategy to curb this menace, and this continuously affects the Petroleum User.
