Pan African Visions

Boycott fuel stations that have refused to reduce fuel prices- COPEC

March 20, 2020

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, COPEC, is urging fuel consumers to boycott fuel stations that have refused to reduce fuel prices at the pumps.

Following the reduction of crude oil from the international markets, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in Ghana were expected to reduce their prices to between 10% to 20% from March 16, 2020 pricing window.

Although some of the OMCs have reduced their prices to
between 5% to 7%, there are several of them who have them have refused to reduce
their ex-pump.

Consequently, the Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah,
in an interview with Accra based Citi FM, urged consumers to boycott those fuel
stations in the country that have declined to decrease prices at the pump.

“Some OMCs as we speak, have refused to even reduce prices.
We would want to encourage consumers to ensure that they are price sensitive at
this time. They should be on the lookout, and be sure to check for prices
before they do their purchases around this time when prices should have gone
down,” he said.

Fuel prices ought to further go down

In a related development, COPEC, is saying that it expects
fuel prices to further reduce, adding that “It’ll be disappointing if fuel
prices don’t go down further”.

COPEC argues that the reduction as have been done by some of the OMCs is insignificant, and that it is hopeful the OMCs will gradually reduce their fuel prices by about 15 percent.

Mr Duncan Amoah maintains that the price can further go down
to bring the needed relief to consumers.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Energy Security (IES), had predicted a reduction of about 5 to 8 percent at the pumps, whiles the National Petroleum Authority, NPA, also said per its calculation, prices were to go down by 15 %.

However, the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) have advised against what they refer to as interference in the pricing of fuel in the country.