NPA To Reduce Fuel Price Today

The National Petroleum Authority(NPA) has announced a reduction of petroleum margins by eight pesewas, from the 17 pesewas previously announced and this reduction takes effect from today Wednesday, May 5, 2021.

This is expected to result in the reduction of fuel prices at the pump.

This decision was arrived at on Monday, May 3, 2021, after a meeting attended by the Minister for Energy Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh; the NPA leadership, the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, the Association of Oil Marketing Companies; Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company; and the Institute for Energy Policies and Research.

On Tuesday, a statement issued and jointly signed by the parties at the Monday meeting said: “the 17 pesewas per liter increase in fuel margins previously announced by the NPA has been reduced to 9 pesewas per liter, effective from tomorrow Wednesday 5th may, 2021”.

Before the Monday meeting, the NPA had announced last week that there was a pending increase in the energy sector levy plus the introduction of the new sanitation and pollution levy as well as other margins will commence from 1 May 2021.

Meanwhile, some of the country’s Oil Marketing Companies had already adjusted the ex-pump price of fuel to reflect the announced increase.

It is expected that the downward review would cause another adjustment to reflect the new prices.

Though the public grumbled over the upward review, there was little the Oil Marketing Companies could do about the situation.

Mr. Kweku Agyeman Duah, Chief Executive of the Association of Oil Companies Chief Executive of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies spoke to Joy FM: “these are genuine tax and levy measures introduced by government that comes into full force. For us as collectors, we need to make sure that we collect fully for the state, so we price accordingly.

“There are some portions of the levies or taxes which should be approved by government and there are some margins too you don’t need parliamentary approval and that’s managed by the NPA. They [NPA] looked at it and did it themselves.

“All that we have to do is to be able to collect the appropriate levies for the state, because if you don’t do it…you have to pay for it yourself and you know our margin; our margin is very small. So, we are shaping all our people in line with the increment, he pointed out”, he added.