Former Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has criticised the current practice of implementing fuel floor prices at selected stations across the country, urging oil marketing companies (OMCs) to ensure nationwide consistency.
Dr Donkor argued that offering discounts at only certain locations contravenes the petroleum pricing policy.
“What some OMCs are doing breaks the law, and there is a law on uniform petroleum pricing, and under that law, you must sell at the same prices across your networks. If you decide to discount, you should discount across the whole network. You cannot discount on selected filling stations,” he said while speaking on the current pricing on JoyFm’s Super Morning Show (SMS) on Tuesday, January 20.
He emphasised that selective reductions could disadvantage other OMCs that do not offer the cuts and, if the discount is later withdrawn, it would negatively impact consumers.
“When you do that, you create a situation where certainly one or two OMCs become so dominant that whenever they decide to change their prices, it will impact negatively on the consumer,” he explained.
He called on the companies to either scrap the floor price altogether or implement it consistently nationwide to maintain regulatory compliance and fairness in the market.
At present, the state-owned Goil and private operator Star Oil have reduced fuel prices at a number of selected stations, a move that a greater section of consumers welcomed, while the former Power Minister suggested it must be in conformity with the country’s petroleum pricing guidelines.
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