No Increases In Fuel Prices Expected

Government is not likely to announce new prices for major petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene in spite of the increase in world price for oil. It has therefore denied reports that it intends to impose a further ?2,000 on petroleum products in order to recover full cost.

According to the Business and Financial Times newspaper, the government has not received any recommendation from the National Petroleum Tender Board (NPTB) requesting for further increase. Moreover, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is also said to have stopped incurring any further debts following the 97% increment announced early this year.

Government Spokesperson, Kofi Amponsah Bediako told the paper that TOR’s three trillion debts were converted into Treasury Bonds early this year to prevent further accumulation of debts and also prevent the debt stock from rising due to high interest rate.

The Spokesperson noted that the creation of the National Petroleum Tender Board brings to an end, the erratic increases. Contrary, the Tender Board was created as an autonomous and independent body with the mandate to review and recommend price adjustment to government in line with the object of full cost recovery. But according to Amponsah Bediako, the fuel increases would be based on strict business principles instead of political judgements.