Special topics
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 who 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 round 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.