Ghanaian oil marketing giant, GOIL, has refuted suggestions that its latest 15 pesewas price reduction on petrol and diesel was in response to a directive from the government.
GOIL has thus challenged the Association of Oil Marketing Companies to provide proof of its claims.
GOIL’s reduction came barely 24 hours after commercial drivers embarked on a sit-down strike in protest against rising fuel cost.
Officials of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, GPRTU, who had met with government officials claim they were made to believe that GOIL’s reduction was influenced by government.
Some media reports had quoted the association as alleging that the reduction resulted from a directive from the government, and urged the government to withdraw the said directive, suggesting a possible government interference in a deregulated space.
But GOIL in a press statement issued on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, and signed by its Group CEO and MD, Kwame Osei-Prempeh described the allegation that government is interfering in the industry as unfounded and baseless.
The CEO explained that GOIL as a listed company took the decision solely and independently in response to harsh post-covid-19 conditions its shareholders were living under.
Mr. Kwame Osei-Prepeh insists in his letter, that GOIL sacrificed its profit margins just to cushion the vast majority of Ghanaians.
“GOIL wants to state categorically that at no point did the government direct the company to reduce its fuel prices as being alleged,” a press statement signed by the CEO and Managing Director of GOIL Company Ltd, Kwame Osei Prempeh indicated.
The statement also added that “GOIL is a listed company with a constituted Board of Directors and Management and takes decisions based on prudent commercial principles”.
It thus concluded that “GOIL is guided by the fact that the company is owned by Ghanaians, and that has always influenced our pricing policy.”
Source: Citinewsroom
