Cylinder importers under-invoicing, killing GCMC – Mould

The Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC) is struggling because importers of gas cylinders are under-invoicing at the ports, Mr Alex Mould, a former CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), has said.

According to him, in order to make the GCMC competitive on the market, the importers must be checked in order to halt the under-invoicing.

Mr Mould told Kwabena Prah Jnr (The Don) on the Ghana Yensom show on Accra 100.5FM on Wednesday, 10 April 2019 that: “The LPG market itself was a little bit not as regulated as petrol. The NPA approved the importation of cylinders because our plants in Ghana could not supply enough.

“The question is: why can’t we make sure that we put an embargo on the importation of these cylinders and ask the plants to revamp and get bigger or encourage more investments into the country to do that?

“One of the things I found out at the NPA was that a lot of the importers were under-invoicing. They would say that a cylinder costs $1. But I will call the manufacturer myself and find out that the cylinder costs $6 or $7. So, when they get to the port, they will show invoices of 1$.

“However, Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company was being taxed on $6 or $7. How do you think that they will be able to manage? When you talk, people say don’t, because the prices of the cylinders will go up. But the issue is that you are killing your local company.”