NPA revises prices of gas oil, kerosene, others

Front Page: May 24, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has revised petroleum prices downwards following the passage the Customs and Excise (Petroleum Taxes and Petroleum Related Levies) Amendment Bill.
Under the revised rates, a litre of gas oil is now 120 GHpesewas, down from 125.54GH pesewas, kerosine was now 113.5 GH pesewas down from 118 GH pesewas and Marine gas 106.32 GH pesewas down from 111.32 GH pesewas.
A gallon of gas oil, kerosene, marine gas and premix was now 540GH pesewas, 511GH pesewas, 478GH pesewas and 330.66GH pesewas respectively.
A source at the NPA told the Daily Graphic that the government had consistently subsidise LPG and that explained why it was not affected by the changes.
It said the total tax on LPG was 13.22GH pesewas and a subsidy of 18.04GH pesewas.
In response to the President’s broadcast on Thursday, Parliament today reacted swiftly to President Kufuor’s proposed tax reprieves and passed into law two bills intended to ameliorate the effects of the rising global commodity prices.
The Presidential initiative was announced in Thursday’s broadcast to the nation and aimed at mitigating the effect of the global crisis on the domestic economy and the broad masses of the people.
Parliament’s swift response provided the legal basis for its immediate implementation.
The specific enactments are the Customs Excise (Duties and other Taxes( Amendment Bill and the Customs and Excise (Petroleum Taxes and Petroleum Related Levies) Amendment Bill.
The principal legislation being the Act 685 which was amended to reduce taxes on a number of petroleum products including Gas Oil, Kerosene, Marine Gas Oil and Premix Fuel.
Specified excise duty on Gas Oil was reduced from 9.1 pesewas to 6.2 pesewas; duty on Kerosene from 6.4875 to 45375 pesewas; duty on Marine Gas from 6.4945 to 3.9945 pesewas whilst the current duty of 5.1456 pesewas on premix fuel is being completely removed.