Page 11 - AfrOil Week 38 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Advocacy group urges Ghana to scrap

“BOST margin” as pump prices keep rising

GHANA A Ghanaian advocacy group, the Chamber of off bearing in mind the very fact that the pri-
Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), is lobbying vate BDCs [Business Development Companies]
for the government to scrap a tax on petroleum also have depots where products are stored, and
products used to cover the maintenance and they do not get any margin but operate leanly,”
operating cost of depots. Amoah said, as quoted by CitiNews. “So per-
The call by COPEC executive secretary Dun- haps this conversation must be had in a broader
can Amoah to cancel the tax on Bulk Oil Stor- manner.”
age and Transportation Company Ltd (BOST) The BOST margin was implemented on the
comes as pump prices continue to rise in Ghana, price build-up in 2011 at GHS0.03 ($0.003) per
despite the drop in global crude oil prices, due litre to cover the maintenance and expansion
to the steady depreciation of the local currency, of infrastructure, and increased to GHS0.06
the cedi. ($0.0059) per litre in 2019, further increasing to
However, Energy Minister Matthew Opoku GHS0.09 per litre in 2021 after several demands
Prempeh says the BOST margin, currently set at by the state company.
GHS0.09 ($0.0089) per litre, is likely to remain Ghana’s petroleum price is unregulated;
in place due to the company’s effective utilisa- hence, global factors determine price direction.
tion of the proceeds, CitiNews reported. Meanwhile, taxes and levies account for almost
“I can promise that the BOST margin on half of the final ex-pump price of fuel. ™
petroleum products is not being taken off any-
time soon. We will use the BOST margin effi-
ciently and effectively to protect the citizens of
this country against the vagaries of private sector
interest, which has always been about profit,” he
said at BOST’s annual general meeting on Sep-
tember 14.
COPEC’s executive secretary argues that
if BOST sticks to its original mandate, which
includes developing a network of storage tanks,
pipelines and other bulk transportation infra-
structure, and leasing out part of it, there is no
need for maintaining the BOST margin in the
petroleum price build-up.
“I totally disagree with the minister when
he says that the margin [should] not be taken

Vivo Energy Ghana sued for negligence

over sales of contaminated gasoline

GHANA THE Ghanaian subsidiary of British a down- station near the Adomi Bridge at Atimpoku in
stream petroleum company, Vivo Energy, has the Eastern Region. He is demanding $2.5mn
been sued for negligence after a filling station from Vivo Energy Ghana, arguing that damage
sold gasoline mixed with water to some drivers, to his car from the incident caused him to lose a
Citi News reports. business opportunity.
Vivo Energy distributes and markets Shell- Barwuah also wants his car, a 2017 Ford
and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants to retail Explorer, replaced with a comparable vehicle
and commercial customers in Africa. as well as GHS 600 ($59.4) per day in damages
The plaintiff, Edward Barwuah, claims to since August 28, when the alleged incident
have been sold water-laced petrol at a Shell occured.

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