The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers has called on government to reduce some taxes on petroleum products to help decrease the cost of petrol at the pump.
Executive Secretary for the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, Duncan Amoah, told Accra-based Citi FM that government must make this move urgently to prevent the incessant increases.
“Primarily, what is accounting for all of this seems to be the Cedi depreciating further against the dollar; and in the industry, speculation is that it is going to hit about 4.5 before the end of the month [January].”
“Today as we speak, the petroleum tax alone is driving all of us to the point we are seeing ourselves in… the taxes that we have been complaining about like I indicated; the national petroleum tax initially, was around 33 pesewas per litre, but today it has shot up to almost 54-55 pesewas per litre,” he explained.
In the first pricing window of 2017, prices of some petroleum products went up by 11 percent.
READ ALSO: Ghana will soon be energy self-sufficient – President Mahama
But the chamber argues that a review of taxes on petroleum products will make up for the recent increases caused by the depreciation of the cedi.
A litre of petrol has increased between 8 and 11 percent, while the same quantity for a litre of diesel is up between 9 and 11 percent.
A litre of petrol at some major Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), is now selling between GHc 4 and GHc 4.15.
These hikes have recently caused some agitation from consumers who say the increment is too high.