NPA clamps down on unscrupulous petroleum service providers

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) said it will deal with bad elements who will stop at nothing in their brazen attempt to game the system at the detriment of the state in the downstream petroleum industry.

The Chief Executive Officer of NPA, Hassan Tampuli said they have had unscrupulous petroleum service providers who try to cheat the system with dumping of export declared products and Marine Gas Oil (MGO) Foreign declared to be sold to foreign vessels for economic gain and tax avoidance.

According to him, MGO leakages are estimated to have cost the nation GHS18million in lost tax revenue in 2017, while export dumping cost over GHS850million.

“The Ministries of Energy and Finance in collaboration with the NPA have put in place stringent measures which have drastically reduced these leakages,” he stated.

Mr. Tampuli added that the measures include application of domestic taxes on MGO Foreign sold to foreign vessels and collaboration with sub-regional neighbors to help account for products declared as exports to those countries.

He intimated that all these measures are aimed at removing the economic incentive to cheat the system which are seen to be yielding some results.

“MGO foreign for instance has reduced from 20millionlitres a month to 290,000litres a month based on the Authority’s preliminary estimates. We have thought it important to include the issue of these leakages on the agenda for discussion today,” the CEO posited.

Mr. Tampuli said this in his opening address at the National Petroleum Downstream Colloquium organized by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) under the theme, “The Petroleum Downstream; Then, Now and the Future,” at Kempinski Hotel in Accra.

Meanwhile later within last month, a letter from the NPA, dated January 12, 2018, read that effective January 16, 2018, all the taxes, levies and margins applicable to domestic Gasoil (except UPPF Margin) will apply to Marine Gasoil (MGO) Foreign.

This directive seems to have angered foreign vessels trading on the shores of West Africa as they claim it is against industry practice.

Industry players believe this move by the NPA can spark similar agitations in the Ghanaian fishing industry.

They expressed shock indicating such taxes will slow down the activities at the port and cause the state some financial loss but the NPA is keen it will save the country.