The price of premix fuel has shot up significantly per gallon across the various landing beaches in the country, which could affect fish prices in the coming days.
It is up by GH¢15 from the initial GH¢10, and a gallon is now expected to be sold at GH¢25 across the country.
According to the government, the increase was necessitated by the increases in the price of crude on the international market.
The National Premix Secretariat administrator, Nana Abrokwa Asare, said the government could no longer bear the huge subsidies provided to fishermen and other product users across the country.
Mr Asare said the decision to increase the price was reached after consultations with the leadership of the fisherfolk and the NPA in collaboration with the Energy Ministry.
“The government highly subsidizes premix fuel as we know, and the subsidy is as huge as 85 percent, 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.”
Mr Asare argued that the current increase would 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 said on Citi News on January 19.