The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) is dropping hints which suggest that prices of petroleum products may be going up in the coming weeks if government decides to remove subsidies on fuel by the middle or end of this month.
Industry analysts are speculating that prices could be going up between 10 and 30 percent, subject to whether government would decide to withdraw subsidies and pass on the full cost to consumers.
The state spent about 1.5 billion Ghana cedis last year to cushion the price of petroleum products by 30 percent.
However, with the cost of subsidies expected to increase by 2.4 billion this year, government is currently contemplating doing away with this policy because it is becoming a drain on its finances.
Government is yet to engage stakeholders like transport operators, the TUC and the Association of Ghana Industries on the issue, but projections are that the increase is likely to take place by the end of this month instead of the next review which falls on Feb 16.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the NPA, Alex Mould has been candid in asking government to either scrap completely, subsidies on fuel prices or fulfill, without failure, all its financial commitments towards sustaining the subsidies.
Source: The Ghanaian Lens
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