Government must intervene in LPG pricing; taxes are too many – LPG Marketers

The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Marketers Association of Ghana wants government to intervene in the pricing of LPG in the country if it is to achieve its policy of 50% of the 31 million Ghanaians having access to safe, clean and environmentally friendly LPG by 2030

According to its Vice President, Gabriel Kumi, the pricing of the petroleum commodity cannot be left in the hands of the market forces of demand and supply.

“LPG is a product with elastic demand. What that simply means is that the product is highly very sensitive. Any pesewa reduction in the price of the LPG goes a long way to affect its consumption. So we have always been fighting for the prices of the LPG to go down and we don’t think government should leave the pricing of certain sensitive products like the LPG to the forces of demand and supply”, he told Joy Business.

“We believe that government should make a conscious effort to ensure that the price of the LPG goes down”, he pointed out.

According to him, government must cut the numerous taxes on LPG to reduce the prices drastically.

“There should be a conscious effort to bring the prices down and one of the main areas we can look at in the pricing of LPG is the taxes on the product. Currently, we are paying about 12% to 13% on the LPG and we believe that should not be made to stand”.

“We call on government to ensure that price on LPG comes down by reducing or if possible removing all taxes on the product. Recently, the Chief Executive of NPA, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid presented a paper to government to look at removing taxes on the LPG and we think that is the best”, he mentioned.

The prices of petrol and diesel went down by about 8% at the pumps, beginning of this week.

However, that of LPG remained the same despite the price of the commodity falling on the world market, whilst the Ghana cedi improved slightly against the US dollar during the period under review.

Source: Ghana News