Government makes U-turn on LPG re-circulation policy; adds marketers

A consensus has been reached between government and the LPG Marketers Association over the implementation of Cylinder re-circulation module that will soon be rolled out.

After a meeting on Wednesday that lasted for hours, it emerged that government had made a u-turn on an earlier decision that the marketers said had eliminated them from the gas distribution value chain.

The deputy Minister of Energy in charge of petroleum, Mr. Mohammed Amin Adam after a meeting with the marketers, told journalists the implementation committee chaired by the Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Hassan Tampuli, has been asked to reconsider the the LPG marketers association in the new policy and address their grievances.

He said the discussion was to ensure the “smooth implementation of the policy” and added the Akufo-Addo led government will not collapse existing businesses in the name of a new policy.

“I want to report to you that there is a consensus across the table between government and industry players that this new policy has come to stay and is a good policy. As you know, it is not the intention of the NPP government to take people out of business. we are pro-business and we want to create more businesses, we want existing businesses to grow so they can make more money and pay more taxes to state so they can create more jobs for the unemployed in our country,” he revealed.

He said government is committed to the smooth implementation of the re-circulation programme through a consensus from all stakeholders, adding “all concerns will be looked into to ensure nobody is left out.”

Meanwhile the LPG marketers have said they are hopeful the implementation committee will take holistic steps to address their concerns.

“We have discussed a lot of issues . . .we are getting back into the implementation committee to once again lay these concerns before this committee with the hope that the committee will address these concerns,” Gabriel Kumi, Vice Chairman of the Association stated in an interview with XYZ News.

Mr.Kumi also said they were committed to the opportunity and show “good faith” and get to the implementation committee and get the issues resolved.

Background

The LPG Marketing Companies Association, last week, asked its members to shut down operations this Christmas in protest over the Energy Ministry’s reluctance to meet them on the implementation plan for the Cylinder Redistribution Module which, to them, had kicked them off the value chain.

A deadline to government to call an emergency meeting passed without any positive response and the LPG Marketing Companies said their first option was to go to Court.

Energy Think Tank, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) who were copied in the last letter to the Ministry also joined the discussions cautioning government against unilateral decisions that had the tendency to collapse the businesses of the LPG marketers.

Government, last Friday, had to send a mail to the association to call for a meeting with the LPG Marketing Companies.