COPEC threatens court action against NPA over new LPG levy

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has threatened legal action against the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) over the introduction of a new levy on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The NPA has directed industry players to start charging 13.5 pesewas on each kilogram of LPG from April 1.

The Authority is also asking oil marketing companies to increase the levy on Fuel Marking Margin from 3 pesewas to 4.5 pesewas per litre on every product.

However, COPEC says the current action of the regulator is illegal.

Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah said, the directive is illegal adding that, there is a legal process to follow.

“In Act 691 that establishes the NPA, the Authority has no mandate, power within the setup to impose a new levy of such magnitude without recourse to parliament” Amoah indicated.

COPEC maintained that the NPA is not clothed with power to unilaterally push levies or taxes on Ghanaians and that, would make the Chamber contest the case in court.”

Mr Amoah said the introduction of the Cylinder Recovery Margin clearly defeats the whole purpose of the Cylinder Recirculation Model.

“It cannot be said that even before rolling out nationally, the monetary consideration is going ahead of everything. We would have wished to see how the CRM would even work across the country, how many of the bottling plants will be erected, how far the NPA is able to serve Ghanaians before it talks about money and charges. Unfortunately, it looks as though right from the start we are already defeating the whole essence of the Cylinder Recirculation Model by putting money ahead of every other thing.”

Amoah added, “It cannot be said that we are already charging Ghanaians for a certain service that they are not using. You cannot charge people for a Cylinder Recovery Margin at the time when they are still using their own bottles. No branded bottles are in the system to be given to anyone if he/she went to the market today to refill his/her bottle, yet you are charging them for a certain recovery. What are you taking those monies for?”