The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, COPEC-Ghana, Duncan Amoah says there is a strong evidence of top government officials who sometimes order for the release of fuel smugglers anytime they are arrested by the security agencies.
“There are times when you arrest these syndicates and government officials will order for them to be released,” said Amoah in an interview with Kasapa 102.5 FM Friday, January 25, 2019.
Over GHC4 million worth of revenue has been lost to fuel smuggling in 2018, that’s according to a research by the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, COPEC-Ghana.
Mr Duncan Amoah has said until the Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) steps up its operations to close in on fuel smugglers the country will still be struggling to clamp down on illegal fuel trade.
For him, the problem of fuel smuggling has become pervasive calling on the GRA to marshal sophisticated revenue monitoring systems to tackle the problem.
“This has been institutionalized now but If we are ready to apply some level of technology we should be able to track the quantity of Petrol that comes in and what goes out.” he told host Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM.
He stated that the problem is overwhelming because a lot of people are using the back end to purchase fuel on to the market.
“There are dozens of fuel tankers in the Tema enclave but when you go and ask them of their weigh bill or loading bill they can’t get it for you, it tells you the magnitude of the problem. So the petrol that are being sold at the pump for 4.9 some people will secretly get it for you at 3.8 because that person evaded tax on it. Just look at the millions of litres being sold in a day. In Ghana more than GHS 17 million litres are sold daily for both Petrol and Diesel. However, out of the figure almost 22%-27% are lost to smuggling.”