The fast depreciation of the cedi against major currencies is responsible for the frequent increase in petroleum products in the country, a dealer and transporter of petroleum products has said.
The implementation of deregulation has allowed Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to review prices of petroleum products every two weeks.
Since the beginning of the year, prices have been reviewed upwards with many blaming the government for the increase.
In March, the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers announced that the prices of petroleum products at the pump dropped by 2-3%.
“Indications from some of the major downstream players point to some 2-3% reductions from current pump prices averaging around 4.320 across most OMCs…,” a statement from the chamber said at the time.
The upward adjustment led to agitations by transport operators who insisted they ought to be allowed to increase transport fares.
Their cry have paid off with the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) signalling that they would be increasing transport fares by 15%. The increment takes effect from 6th April, 2017.
Explaining the reason for the constant upward adjustment of Petroleum products, Mr Godwin Tamakloe, of Puma Energy said that the constant depreciation of the cedi ought to be blamed for the constant upward adjustment.
“The cedi deprecation especially between the months of December 2016 to the middle of March 2017 is partly to blame for the increment. We import the products with the dollar and sell in cedis before we change the money again into dollar to buy the commodity, hence when it depreciates, it means more cedis would have to be changed into dollar to purchase the commodity from the international market and that explains the increment,” he said.
Mr Tamakloe stated further that with the gradual stabilisation of the cedi, Ghanaians can be rest assured that petroleum products would remain stable and possibly be reviewed downwards when prices of the commodity goes down on the world market.
“The cedi is now gaining some height against some of the foreign currencies like the euro, pounds and the US dollar and we are hoping that would continue so we can all deal with a stabilised currency, we pray it continues…,” he said.
He therefore urged Ghanaians to rally behind the government and ask for wisdom for the Economic Management Team so they can continuously work to get the cedi stabilised.