E.S.L.A Plc has challenged claims by the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) that almost Gh¢1bn of petroleum taxes relating to the Energy Sector levies introduced to help clear government’s indebtedness to bulk oil distributors cannot be accounted for.

In its industry report for 2017, CBOD said the variance between its figures and what the Finance Ministry reported for 2016 and 2017 is mainly the result of transfer pricing, dumping of products meant for export on the local market, and smuggling.

CBOD said, its analysis of the National Petroleum Authority’s data on the performance of oil marketing companies shows that government failed to account for GH¢576.63million for 2016 and GH¢339.16million for 2017 of ESLA receipts.

But in a statement, E.S.L.A Plc said, “The CBOD report claims amounts of GH¢76.63 million and GH¢339.16 million were unreported in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Whiles these amounts may have been derived by taking the gross volumes of petroleum products consumed into consideration, a pertinent factor relating to exemptions that have been granted for certain volumes lifted were ignored.”

“The gross volumes, which formed the basis of computations by CBOD, were based on the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) Performance Statistics report published by the National Petroleum Authority.

Whiles this data accurately reflects volumes of petroleum products consumed, they cannot in their entirety be used for the computation of taxes and levies as they do not discount they do not discount the volume of petroleum products that are eligible for," the statement said. 

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