The Liquidified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Marketing Companies Association has described taxes on the LGP as nuisance and asked the government to scrap them immediately.
According to the association, the taxes are affecting both consumers and industry players alike.
Taxes on LPG the association maintained stood at 36 percent on the product which they said was very high and asked the government to intervene; it also expressed the hope that the finance minister will consider their concerns in the 2020 budget which he will present somewhere November.
They association said scrapping the taxes will enable consumers to purchase the LPG product.
Vice chairman of LPG marketing association, Mr Gabriel Kumi in his remarks during the National Petroleum Authority Cylinder Recirculation Model (RCM) Regional Public engagements in Tamale said whereas LPG consumption is stagnant in Ghana, it is fast growing globally.
Mr Kumi said if the government fails to reduce the price, LPG consumption per their projections, the consumption will hit less than 15% in Ghana by the end of 2019.
The LPG marketing vice chair asked government to pay much attention to two critical issues; public education and pump price.
He said, the LPG was one of the subsidized products in Ghana but it is no more and government needs to have a second look at it.
Mr Kumi said between 2006 and 2015, LPG was growing on an average of 16.16% within the period of 10 years. However, 2016-2017 the consumption remains stagnant because of high price.
He cited instances where the association in 2014-2015 carried out need assessment in the northern region on Cylinder distributed.
The assessment he added revealed that there was the need for a plant along Bole Bamboi.
A plant was subsequently set up at Damongo in January 2015 with amount of about 800,000 Ghana ciders was invested in it.
It took the people in the area over 6 months to consume the 50 metric tons discharged.
This, Mr Kumi said did not make business sense because the demand was too low.
Almost every household in the area Mr Kumi said had cylinder but abandoned the cylinders and resort to the use of fire woods because they were not been educated properly on the use of LPG.
He emphasized the need for NPA to pay attention to sensitizing citizens. Government and NPP nice ideas and objectives will amount to nothing if the price is not reduced, Mr Kumi stated.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.