Fuel prices to go up by 8% in the second pricing of February-COPEC

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, (COPEC) has predicted an upward adjustment in fuel prices, beginning February 16, 2024.

According to COPEC, the price of petrol may go up by 6.63%, while that of diesel will increase by 8.18%.

Therefore, petrol will now sell between GH¢12.02 and GH¢13.29 per litre, from the previous GH¢11.87 per litre.

Diesel will now sell between GH¢13.21 and GH¢14.60 per litre from GH¢12.85 per litre.

The projected retail price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) is expected to average at GH¢13.24 per kilogramme. According to COPEC, this is within ±5% margin of error.

“The imminent increases are largely due to increases in price of petrol on the international market by about 1.75% whilst diesel goes up by 6.02% with crude price increasing by 1.39% from the mean price of $81.30/barrel to $82.43/barrel. The forex or dollar exchange rate has also increased by 2.16% from a previous average of GH¢12.01603 to GH¢12.4230 per $1”.

The increment is as a result of the depreciation of the cedi during the period and rising price of finished petroleum products on the international market.

“In addition to the above international price changes is the increase in local taxes of Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund(UPPF), Primary Distribution Margin (PDM) and BOST margin to the tune of 20 pesewas on a litre of petrol and diesel by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA)”.

COPEC urged the government to desist from the practice of increasing taxes and margins on all petroleum products as it is currently doing, adding, “this practice of sneaking in tax increases on the price build up only further increases the economic pressure on Ghanaians”.