Energy expert pushes for removal of BOST margins to ease fuel price

The Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy (CEMSE), Benjamin Nsiah, has called for the urgent removal of margins allocated to the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) in the petroleum price build-up, as the government considers measures to reduce ex-pump fuel prices.

His comments follow Cabinet’s directive for the Ministers of Finance and Energy to implement a temporary suspension of selected taxes and margins over an initial four-week period to ease fuel price pressures on households and businesses.

He warned that BOST now operates as a fully commercial entity and generates adequate revenue from its core services, including storage, transportation, and terminal operations provided to private sector players in the downstream petroleum industry.

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Speaking in an interview on Citi Business News on Sunday, April 12, 2026, Nsiah said continued inclusion of BOST margins in fuel pricing places an unnecessary burden on consumers.

Nsiah also raised concerns about the underutilisation of BOST infrastructure, noting that several depots across the country remain idle despite existing capacity.

According to him, this situation undermines the rationale for maintaining margins intended for infrastructure development and maintenance.

He further questioned BOST’s operational spending, arguing that revenues from the margin have increasingly become an internal funding source rather than being directed toward expanding or improving critical petroleum infrastructure.

“BOST margin should be one of the margins considered by the government to be cut or scrapped from the build-up of petroleum products because BOST now operates as a commercial entity… BOST takes a service fee from private businesses, so they make money on their own,” he said.

He added that several depots remain underutilised, citing the Bolgatanga depot as an example.

“For example, the whole of last year’s products never went to the Bolga depot… if you have this infrastructure and you are underutilising it and continue to burden the Ghanaian petroleum consumer to pay for such margins to upgrade your infrastructure, what is its use?” he questioned.

Nsiah further alleged that the margin has become a source of operational income used for administrative expenses rather than infrastructure expansion and maintenance.

“BOST margin now becomes an operational income… to increase their wages and engage in frivolous expenditure because of the free money that consumers give them,” he added.

SO/MA