The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Hassan Tampuli has called for complete retooling of the country’s Navy to enable it fight oil smuggling on sea.
He indicated that the Authority has recently made several arrests in collaboration with undercover security officials who launched swoops on route to the open sea where super tankers anchor sell low quality gasoline and diesel to the cartel of ‘goro men.’
NPA has said that the underground business involves the smuggling of inferior fuel products from the high seas into the country, which not only causes revenue loss to the government but injurious to human health.
He said this at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Edition of the Ghana International Petroleum Conference in Accra under the theme, “Realising the Vision of a Petroleum Hub” at Kempinski Hotel.
Gh₵1.4Billion Lost through Smuggling
The Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD), in their latest 2017 Industry Report pointed out that government lost GH₵1.4billion in a form of petroleum taxes, levies and regulatory margins through smuggling and export dumping in 2017.
The report further highlighted that transfer pricing, re-export dumping and smuggling accounted for the main leakages in the petroleum consumption tax revenue.
It indicated that the impact of these occurrences makes legitimate businesses suffer economic losses which translate into further losses.
According to Hassan Tampuli, the situation demands strong collaboration with officials in neighboring countries such as Togo, Burkina Faso and the Gulf States.
He added that the Authority will adopt the examples of Benin on best practices regarding bunkering regulation in order to enable it manage activities on Ghana’s coastal lines.
Source: CBOD News
