Price of premix fuel increased from GH¢10 to GH¢25 per gallon

The price has been increased from GH¢10 to GH¢25 per gallon due to the price of crude on the international market.

The administrator of the National Premix Secretariat, Nana Abrokwa Asare said the decision to increase the price was reached after consultations with the leadership of the fisherfolks and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in collaboration with the Energy Ministry adding that the government can no longer continue to bear the huge subsidies it gives to fishermen and other users of the product across the country.

In an interview on Accra-based Citi FM, he said "Premix fuel as we know is highly subsidized by the government and the subsidy is as huge as 85%, so the government in recent times also experienced the challenges of having to catch up with the ever-rising cost of fuel on the international market, so we engaged the leadership of the fisherfolk to discuss the modalities that can help us improve the supply of premix fuel and one of the things that came up strongly were we considering a marginal increase in the price of premix fuel."

He argued that the current increase will bring respite to the government and also improve the delivery of the product.

"It reduces the burden on the government. For the record, a gallon was being sold for GH¢10 when a gallon should have been sold for GH¢80 and so the government was incurring a debt of GH¢70 per gallon. And so, after sitting down and deliberating with the fisherfolks, we agreed that a gallon of premix should be sold for about GH¢30 but putting everything together in consultation with NPA and the Ministry of Energy, we came to a consensus that a gallon must be sold for GH¢25," he added.

The situation some fishermen said is seriously affecting the local economy.

The fishermen in the coastal communities were gradually grinding to a halt due to the price of the product.