A former Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby has called for the dissolution of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) if it can’t regulate fuel price hikes to protect consumers. Dr Wereko-Brobby in an interview on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, November 1, added that the NPA must control the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to follow the laws on deregulation.
“There is a jungle market going on in fuel pricing. Deregulation works because we have set up windows for which price changes will be announced. There are two windows for every month. The NPA as the regulator is supposed to ensure that it announces what is known as maximum retail prices, so no consumer gets cheated by the Oil Marketing Companies.”
“But NPA has reneged on its duty and given it to COPEC which ironically is supposed to be representing the interest of the consumer… COPEC is now the chief cheerleader for marketing companies that keep announcing prices willy-willy. That is not the way deregulation was set up to go, it just keeps piling the pressure on [consumers],” Dr Wereko-Brobby told host Umaru Sanda Amadu.
Dr. Wereko-Brobby who is also a chief policy analyst at the Ghana Institute of Public Policy Options added that “yes Russia-Ukraine war is causing trouble, it has made oil prices go up, but the problem is that the government passes all the cost onto us consumers, so prices are adjusted to reflect the current global prices but the windfall profits nobody wants to talk about it and then somebody says I feel your pain, you cannot feel the pain of Ghanaians when you ride 60 strong SUVs to travel around the country.”
“NPA is the regulator, why do you call them regulators if you can’t do anything? Then dissolve them. Why do we call them regulators, they are to make sure that the interest of the consumer and the business are both protected, you can’t have it one way.”
Fuel prices shot up again on Tuesday, November 1, with diesel hitting GH¢23.49 per litre, while petrol jumped to GH¢17.99 per litre with Kerosene also selling at GH¢14.70. The new prices took effect on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
