Filling stations to be punished for not selling fuel to motorists

Minister of Energy and Petroleum Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah says there is fuel in the system and any filling station that turns motorists away with the pretext that there is no fuel will be punished duly.

Mr Buah was worried that indicating that there is no fuel on the part of filling stations only creates panic among motorists and that is a punishable offence.

The Energy Minister was speaking to some journalists on Wednesday, June 25 in Accra.

He said government has engaged the Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) for the past weeks over how to settle the debt government owes them.

"We are in the third week of that audit."

He indicated that the Bank of Ghana, as part of measures to settle the arrears to the BDCs, has made available enough foreign exchange “so that the imports of the products are covered”.

Mr Buah, therefore, said any BDC that takes advantage of the situation and says there are no products is breaking the law.

“Don’t’ take advantage of this announcement and create panic because if you do and you start telling everybody that there are no products, you are breaking the law and we will punish them,” he warned.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure there is continuous fuel in the market.”

Accra seems to have been plunged into an acute shortage of petroleum since Tuesday, June 24. The situation has been fundamentally attributed to a GH¢1.8 billion debt owed the BDCs.