The Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC) has welcomed the National Petroleum Authority’s directive requiring Oil Marketing Companies to halt discounted fuel pricing and enforce uniform prices across retail outlets from March 16.
Chief Executive Officer of COMAC, Dr. Riverson Oppong, says the directive is a positive development for the downstream petroleum sector and should be welcomed by consumers.
He made the remarks in an interview with Energy News Africa.
“We at the chamber, we are more importantly focused on having this reform accepted and adopted by all players. That is the implementation plan that we want to put together with the regulator to ensure that members are obeying it.
“So I think the public should rather be happy instead of hunting around the city and town looking for where there is a discount than going to any station to have the same price everywhere. So if you are discounting, you should discount across all your stations. So I think that is what has been the good news for the ordinary player,” Dr. Riverson Oppong stated.
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has meanwhile defended its decision to scrap fuel discounting by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) under the revised Petroleum Products Pricing Guidelines.
The downstream petroleum regulator argues that the discounting regime had increasingly become a predatory pricing tool that placed some OMCs at a disadvantage within the market.
It contends that the move to abolish the discounting practice is in line with the provisions of the law governing the downstream petroleum sector.
