By Ebi Kesiena
Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has disclosed that prices of petrol and diesel are likely to increase averagely by about 5.7 per cent over the current mean price of GH¢12.45 per litre, beginning Wednesday for the next two weeks.
While the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas is also expected to go up by about 11.9 per cent.
According to the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), the expected increase was due to the 11.00 per cent rise in prices of finished products on the international market, and the about 6.79 per cent surge in the price of crude oil, even though the forex or dollar exchange rate had relatively decreased from a previous average of GH¢11.7185 to GH¢11.4538 (-2.26%) per $1.
The Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, urged the government to reduce taxes on LPG or to subsidise the price of LPG to promote its nationwide accessibility and usage, which would eventually help save the environment.
Additionally, COPEC advocated reduction or take-off of some of the fuel taxes to lessen the burden on consumers.
Against the review, all pump prices are expected to be within (±5 per cent) error margin of COPEC’s prediction.
With the new prices, petrol is expected to sell at GH¢12.97 per litre on the average, while diesel will go for GH¢13.43 per litre.
However, the 14.5 kilogramme LPG cylinder is expected to sell at GH¢178.36 within the window, while the total taxes and levies are about 25 per cent of the retail prices of petrol and diesel.
