The LPG Marketers Association says it is against the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA’s) reason for imposing a new Cylinder Recovery Margin on the LPG price build-up.

According to a release by the NPA, LPG Marketing Companies will assume full responsibility of the safety and maintenance of cylinders, as well as being liable for any accidents involving their branded cylinders, when the cylinder recirculation module rolls out.

The Vice President of the LPG Marketers Association Gaby Kumi told JoyBusiness, the issue is not against raising money for NPA’s agenda but rather to ensure that the regulator does that without adding on additional tax.

Mr Kumi said, “At this critical time when the President is out there trying to protect the nation, the only thing our regulator can do at this moment is to increase taxes on a basic commodity like LPG.

"We believe that is in bad taste. We are appealing to NPA to as matter of urgency withdraw the levy they’ve tried to introduce, let’s get back unto the drawing board. We can look elsewhere and find some money. ”

He has also renewed calls for the government to remove taxes on the LPG price build-up to achieve government’s quest of increasing penetration of the commodity in the country.

Mr Kumi said usage of the commodity has stagnated over the years and cautioned the downstream regulator that LPG consumption will start declining if the numerous taxes are not removed.“We have taken a very principled position. We have been hammering this for the past two years that LPG should be made tax-free.”

“We have been appealing to the government to take about 20% tax from the product. So that the product can be more affordable for the ordinary Ghanaian to use because the government has set itself an objective to increase consumption from the current 25 per cent to 50 per cent by the year 2030. But we believe that the strongest enemy against the product is the price.”

He said the price of LPG in Ghana is one of the highest in Africa. “So we see no reason why if we are not taken off the existing taxes, why should we add on to taxes at this critical time”