The Government of Ghana has suspended the Price Stabilization and Recovery levies on petrol, diesel and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) for two months.
This brings down the taxes and levies components of petroleum price build-up from eighteen to seventeen.
A litre of fuel currently sells at GHc6.52 for both petrol and diesel.
This development has resulted in widespread complaints by petroleum consumers.
As of 9 am, Monday, October 11, 2021, the international benchmark crude Brent was trading at $84.22 while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $81.53
A statement issued by Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, the NPA, which announced the suspension of the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy said: “Because the pricing of petroleum products in Ghana is deregulated, changes in prices of petroleum products on the world market have a direct impact on prices at the pumps.
“The outlook of prices on the global market show an upward trend and, therefore, there was the need to seek the government’s intervention to lower the levies to cushion consumers from feeling the full impact of these rising prices,” it said.
The statement explained that the purpose of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) is to stabilise prices for consumers and pay for the subsidies on premix fuel and Residual Fuel Oil (RFO).
At this time, It is Important that the PSRL, which is currently sixteen pesewas per litre (GHp16/Lt) on petrol, fourteen pesewas per litre (GHp14/Lt) on diesel and fourteen pesewas per kilogram (GHp14/Kg) on LPG are zeroed to cushion consumers.
“The NPA will work with the Ministries of Energy and Finance to quicken the legislative processes to give immediate effect to this directive by the President,” it stated.
“We are grateful to H.E. the President for granting the request to zero these levies to minimise the effect of rising prices of petroleum products on the world market on consumers in Ghana,” it concluded.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
