Price deregulation policy in petroleum sector working – NPA
Head of Pricing at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Abass Ibrahim Tasunti says the price deregulation policy introduced by the government in 2015 is still running.
Hon. Kwaku Citizen
Head of Pricing at the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Abass Ibrahim Tasunti says the price deregulation policy introduced by the government in 2015 is still running.
The deregulation policy allows marketers and importers of petroleum products to set directly their prices based on import parity costs, taxes, and margins.
It brought an end to government subsidies on these products, which arises from exchange rate losses and consumer subsidies.
His statement comes at a time when Ghanaians are expected to see a marginal increase in the price of diesel starting from October 1.
According to Abass Ibrahim Tasunti, bulk distribution companies (BDCs) are currently pricing at a discount of $30 due to competition.
“When the government was controlling pricing, for example, the premium the BDCs were using to set the prices was $112 per metric ton. As we speak today, because of competition, we are BDCs pricing at a discount of $30 for petrol for example and about just 6 dollars for diesel.
“If we were to be regulating, worse case, we would have still been using the $100 we were using six years ago, but you know that would not be fixed”
This form of competition, he said has made consumers better off.
“Under this current structure, you don’t have a BDC sector that is out there trying to take advantage of consumers. As we speak today, the reverse of that is true,” he said.
