The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association wants the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, to introduce a transition plan that will move the country from the current cylinder model to the Cylinder Recirculation project.

The association is also appealing to the new NPA boss to use his office to help reduce the various taxes on LPG which have shot up the price of the commodity and thus depriving the poor from buying it.

Vice President of the LPG Marketers Association, Gabriel Kumi tells Joy Business the present situation is not good for the industry, hence the need for drastic action to encourage usage of LPG.

“Quite clearly the two main issues confronting the LPG downstream sector are continuous increase in the price of the product as a result of excessive taxation of LPG in Ghana as well as government’s attempt to introduce the recirculation module in Ghana”.

“Over the past four years, government through the Ministry of Energy and NPA has been making some attempts to introduce the Cylinder Recirculation Model but that attempt has not been successful. We’ve been playing politics with the policy over the past four years; there’s no clear cut plan or a transition plan for this policy. We’re always adopting the ‘fire-fighting’ and the ‘knee jerk reaction’ towards the policy. These are the reasons why the policy has not seen the light of day. So, we would want the new CEO to come up with a clear plan; a transition plan that will transition the country from the current model to the cylinder recirculation model”, he explained.

Mr. Kumi further said “we’re looking at a five-year to a seven-year transition plan to be able to implement. Obviously the past four years have been a disaster. We’ve not been able to do it and it’s because of lack of plan and lack of input from industry.”

The LPG Marketers who are so much concern about the pricing of the product, said if nothing is done imminently, the agenda of encouraging many Ghanaians to consumer LPG will be futile.

Currently LPG is being sold on the market at about ¢6.6 and that translates to about ¢100 for the household cylinder that is the 14.5KG and Mr. Kumi said “we believe that this is way beyond the reach of the average Ghanaian. The product is now expensive as a result of excessive taxes and we’ll advise that the incoming CEO to take a very closer look at the price of the product and take measures to take off the taxes on the product, so that we can bring the product to a very affordable limit so that the ordinary Ghanaian can afford.

He added that the environment must be save from tree cuttings, adding “we can save our environment, we can save our rivers from drying up, we can protect mother Ghana. At the end of the day, this will go a long way to ensure that we have a very safe environment to live in.