Petroleum economist and political risk analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong has described government’s alleged move to get GOIL to reduce its prices by 15 pesewas as an unsustainable one.

According to him, the government should be more interested in finding a lasting solution to the problem of petroleum price hikes instead of relying on stop gap solutions to the petroleum crisis.

His comment was premised on the reduction of prices of GOIL petroleum products by 15 pesewas in the wake of a nationwide strike action by commercial transport owners.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile Saturday, Dr. Acheampong said, “I also am worried in the sense that if you have a state entity basically coming in and interjecting and trying to distort the market mechanism, the question is for how long are we going to do this because GOIL cannot continue to do so every time that price kind of goes up.

"Are we then going to say that GOIL will come in and reduce their margin? That cannot be done sustainably in my view even over three months.

“Because that’s going to eat into their profit and it’s going to eat into the dividends that they’d have to declare to shareholders at the end of the financial year,” he said.

On Monday, December 6, drivers who are part of Commercial Transport Owners withdrew their services following what they termed the government’s refusal to reduce taxes on petroleum products which they say has led to the high cost of petrol, diesel, and LPG.

Later that evening, the Head of Communications at the GPRTU, Abbas Imoro on JoyNews’ PM Express stated that after a crunch meeting between government and transport operators, the government had directed GOIL to reduce its prices to provide some relieve to commercial drivers.

He added that government also committed to reviewing taxes on fuel in the mid-year budget review.

However, in a dramatic turn, GOIL in a press release said claims of government interference in the reduction of its prices is false and unfounded.

According to GOIL, the reduction of its prices was an internal decision and had no external influence from government.