The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), has called on the State to cushion Oil and Gas Companies following the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement, COPEC said a lot of companies “are reeling heavily under the harsh effect of the three-week lockdown and subsequent low volumes and revenues, which can increase job losses and redundancy within the country.”
The chamber also called on the National Petroleum Authority, NPA to reduce the burden of the License Renewal Fees charged the Oil Marketing Companies to enable them adjust to the vagaries of the pandemic on their businesses COPEC said this appeal is to ensure that fuel prices are kept low for Ghanaians without the tendency to increase or collect the full margins which can only lead to increases in pump prices.”
The Chamber, strongly called for an increased moratorium for the next six months for Oil Companies to file returns instead of the current system which runs to July.
It argued that “sales volumes across the board have reduced significantly and any attempts to enforce the earlier 21 or 45-day collections could only mean going to the banks to borrow, which will eventually place undue pressures on the companies to engage in all manner of games to survive.”
