The Spokesperson of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mohammed Abdul-Kudus, has stated that his outfit is keeping an eye on Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) who may want to capitalise on the increase in fuel prices, to amass profit.

According to him, the NPA will ensure that consumers are not unduly exploited as a result of the increase in the cost of fuel, which is expected to take effect on Wednesday.

Mr. Kudus, made this disclosure in an interview with Evans Mensah, on News Night on Tuesday.

"Without a doubt, our department responsible works closely all the time with the oil marketing companies and then they eventually would post their indicative prices with us, and they cannot sell above the bracket which they have given us. So there's always a maximum ceiling, and they're not allowed to go beyond the ceiling. And our department will certainly be up to the task and ensure that everything that is done conforms with the pricing formula".

Responding to a question on the levels of increment expected to be seen at the pumps on Wednesday, he stated that he cannot give any definite ranges. Mr. Kudus said he is not privy to the bracket the various OMCs, may price at.

He however assured that the NPA will ensure that no OMC takes undue advantage of the situation.

Meanwhile, Deputy Energy Minister, Andrew Agyapa Mercer has assured of government’s commitment to implement measures that would cushion fuel consumers from the effects of increasing price hikes in recent times

He stated, however, that he is unable to confirm a specific date by which the government’s intervention will take effect.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s News Night on Tuesday, Mr. Agyapa said the government is looking at reducing three of the taxes on petroleum products.

This, he said, comes after the NPA recommended that the government reconsiders some of the petroleum taxes, specifically the Special Petroleum Tax, the Energy Sector Recovery Levy, and the Pollution and Sanitation Levy.

“… the last time I indicated that some representation has been made by the NPA to the Ministry of Energy for which we have actioned and expecting that the Ministry of Finance would do the assessment evaluation and make a recommendation to Cabinet for approval.

My understanding as of this morning was that they were working on some modeling to see the extent to which recommendation that came from NPA through the Ministry of Energy to government would come to,” he said.

This assurance from the Deputy Energy Minister follows the Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), Duncan Amoah’s call on government to institute measures to cushion consumers from the increasing fuel prices.

In an interview on The Pulse on Tuesday, Duncan Amoah explained that the economy will further derail if the government does not take action to mitigate the impact of the recent increase in fuel prices.

“Everything else is going up. Cost of living generally is rising and the people who depend on government for salaries at the end of the month would come back to the government.

What we take home cannot keep us. So 2 billion you may say you don’t have immediately, but it would end up costing you sometimes 20 billion, 10 billion eventually because everything else has gone up…you will pay double, things will double up even against government’s expenditure,” he said.