LPG marketers cry foul

Members of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Marketing Companies Association have renewed their request for an audience with the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, over what they describe as a discriminatory gas cylinder recirculation policy.

Per the new policy, LPG Bottling Plants will be sited away from congested commercial and populated centres and will procure, brand, maintain and fill empty cylinders to be distributed to consumers and households through retail outlets.

The move follows the Atomic Junction gas station explosion a few months ago.

But the LPG marketing companies fear the new policy will phase them out of the value chain.

Speaking to Class News, Mr Gabby Kumi, vice president of the association said: “We are seeking audience to press our concerns. They have brought a value chain through which they are going to distribute LPG to the consumer under the new LPG policy. Unfortunately, the value chain does not feature the LPG marketing companies and the LPG retailers.

“Our role have been completely wiped out from the value chain and we feel that was unfair, we feel that was very illogical because if you have players already in an industry and you are just developing a new policy for the industry, the most logical thing to do is to automatically migrate us who are already in the industry into the new value chain that you are proposing but this was not done.

Our role has been completely taken off the value chain, so they are projecting this new value chain as if it was a new industry but this is not a new industry.”