Discussions on fuel price hike commences

High level discussions are going on between senior officials of the Ministry of Mines and Energy and government advisers to come up with an appropriate price level for petroleum products.

Sources close to the meeting told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that a proposal on the issue would be presented to President John Kufuor by Friday. The meeting is also looking at other petroleum tax options to make up for loses incurred in the last 12 months and beyond."All I can tell you is that there will be price increases but they will not come at a go," the source said.

The source declined to state the percentage increase, saying the option will be left for the President to decide. "I do not want to pre-empt the President."

"We are going to give the President options to choose from. There are a lot of factors involved. First, you have to look at what inputs to make so that you can recover your costs. You also understand that petroleum prices have inflationary pressures on the economy .... hence you have to give the President the options first on how to recover the costs."

A gallon of petrol is currently sold at 6,400 cedis. A similar meeting is taking place at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) over the same issue. The petroleum price hike, according to industry analysts, is long overdue saying it has caused TOR the loss of about three trillion cedis.