Gov’t urged to cushion consumers against consistent hike in oil prices
Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security, Nana Amoasi VII, has urged government to intervene in cushioning consumers against the shocks of increment in oil prices.
Concerns have been raised by energy experts that the rising oil prices will impact negatively on consumers, though the country will benefit significantly from the windfall of the commodity price.
Crude oil price crossed the $100 mark on 24th February, 2022, selling at $105 per barrel on the world market, far more than the $65 dollars budgeted by the government in the 2022 Budget.
Nana Amoasi VII also called on the government for a revitalization of the Tema Oil Refinery.
“We expect government to put in measures to stop the consistent rise in fuel prices on our local market. Of course there are ways to deal with this.”
“There are three factors that account for prices we see at the pumps. One will be the taxes, levies and margins they slap on the price build-up. Two is the value of our local currency against the US dollar- the major trading currency and finally the international prices”. Government can say they don’t have answers to this for the price exposure; the BOST system, the TOR system can manage those prices and supply shocks to some extent”, he added.
Read: Stock markets rebound on Russia sanctions
“Then in terms of the depreciation of the cedi, we still count on government to ensure that there is enough dollars in the system so we are good at that end”, Nana Amoasi VII further said.
The increasing price of crude oil has been caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two biggest producers of crude oil.
The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Duncan Amoah, asserts that although consumers’ should embrace for price hikes at the pumps, there are some measures government can put in place to mitigate the impact of the rising oil prices on Ghanaians.
“We’re not surprise that crude oil move from $96 overnight to $102 currently. We are certain that by weekend if these tensions continue, we could be hitting $110 and probably $120 in no time. What that means is that Ghanaian pump prices which takes major exports from Europe could also cross ¢8.50 or ¢8.70 by the first day of March 2022; these are real numbers and these are things that we cannot run away from”.
“We expect the authorities to sit immediately and devise a proper containment strategy as far as pump prices is concerned. Once international market prices go up, Ghana as an oil producing and exporting country is simply going to get a lot more revenue”, he stressed.
