Chief Executive of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) in the Republic of Ghana, Senyo Hosi, has said an influential cartel of industry players are stealing Ghana’s petroleum revenues.
Mr Hosi’s comment come on the back of revelations in CBOD’s 2018 Industry Report showing that, some one billion litres of the refined commodity could not be accounted for between 2015 and 2017.
Speaking on an Accra based Joy FM, Mr Hosi said traceable data from official sources show that this loss of litres translates to almost GH¢1.4 billion.
He said the persons behind this systematic theft of the petroleum revenue are part of a ruthless cartel who are able to recruit even very powerful public and private officials.
“It’s a cartel of industry players and may include politicians, the BDCs [Bulk Distribution Companies] and OMCs [Oil Marketing Companies]…it involves a lot of people; possibly officials also from the regulator [National Petroleum Authority],” he said.
This cartel, whose members he has refused to identify, presents a major threat to the country’s petroleum revenue.
According to Mr Hosi, this GH¢1.4 billion loss (the estimated cost of the one billion litres that cannot be accounted for) occurred through petroleum tax revenue evasion.
The latest report by the CBOD also noted that for the period 2015 to 2018, total taxes evaded based on official unaccounted stocks stood at GH¢1.3 billion while total under-reported taxes based on official accounted sale volume after adjustments for exemptions stands at GH¢1.2 billion.
However, an additional GH¢238.96 million was also stolen through the evasion of regulatory margins.
“This implies that the country has lost a total of GH¢2.6 billion in taxes for the period. Combined with the evaded regulatory margin of GH¢231.53 million, a total GH¢2.790.59 million has been lost to the nation in taxes and regulatory margins for the period 2015 to 2018,” the report recounted Ghana’s revenue loss.
Although the petroleum tax revenue increased on the back of reduced illegal trades which reflected in an increase in official volumes, under-reporting of taxes on official sales by GH¢433.75 million in 2018 after adjusting for tax exemptions and waivers was not eliminated.